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IVORY  IN  CHINA 

BY 

BERTHOLD  LAUFER 
Curator  of  Anthropology 


Anthropology 
Leaflet  21 


FIELD  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 
CHICAGO 

1925 


The  Anthropological  Leaflets  of  Field  Museum  are  designed  to 
give  brief,  non-technical  accounts  of  some  of  the  more  interesting 
beliefs,  habits  and  customs  of  the  races  whose  life  is  illustrated 
in  the  Museum's  exhibits. 

LIST  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY  LEAFLETS  ISSUED  TO  DATE 

1.  The  Chinese  Gateway $  .10 

2.  The  Philippine  Forge  Group 10 

3.  The  Japanese  Collections 25 

4.  New  Guinea  Masks 25 

5.  The  Thunder  Ceremony  of  the  Pawnee 25 

6.  The  Sacrifice  to  the  Morning  Star  by  the 

Skidi  Pawnee .10 

7.  Purification  of  the  Sacred  Bundles,  a  Ceremony 

of  the  Pawnee 10 

8.  Annual  Ceremony  of  the  Pawnee  Medicine  Men      .        .10 

9.  The  Use  of  Sago  in  New  Guinea 10 

10.  Use  of  Human  Skulls  and  Bones  in  Tibet       ...        .10 

11.  The  Japanese  New  Year's  Festival,  Games 

and  Pastimes 25 

12.  Japanese  Costume  .     .     .     .  * 25 

13.  Gods  and  Heroes  of  Japan 25 

14.  Japanese  Temples  and  Houses 25 

15.  Use  of  Tobacco  among  North  American  Indians     .        .25 

16.  Use  of  Tobacco  in  Mexico  and  South  America    .     .        .25 

17.  Use  of  Tobacco  in  New  Guinea 10 

18.  Tobacco  and  Its  Use  in  Asia 25 

19.  Introduction  of  Tobacco  into  Europe 25 

20.  The  Japanese  Sword  and  Its  Decoration 25 

21.  Ivory  in  China 75 

D.  C.  DA  VIES 

DIRECTOR 
FIELD  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 
CHICAGO,  U.  S.  A. 


Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

DEPARTMENT  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY 
Chicago.  1926 


Leaflet  Number  21 


Ivory  in  China 

Ivory  occupies  a  very  prominent  place  in  the  art 
of  the  Far  East,  and  Chinese  carvers  in  ivory  have 
always  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  their  craft.  But 
those  who  have  hitherto  written  on  the  subject  have 
merely  treated  it  as  an  art  industry,  extolling  Chinese 
mastery  of  technique,  skill  in  execution,  and  grace  of 
design.  Correct  as  this  judgment  may  be,  it  is  based 
on  more  or  less  modern  productions  which  are  dis- 
tinguished for  technical  ingenuity  rather  than  for  ar- 
tistic merits.  The  archaeology  of  ivory  and  the  older 
real  works  of  art  created  in  this  substance  have  almost 
wholly  been  neglected.  The  object  of  the  present  study 
is  to  fill  this  gap,  to  set  forth  the  importance  of  ivory 
in  the  early  antiquity  of  China,  to  trace  the  sources 
of  supply  and  the  development  of  the  ivory-trade,  and 
to  interpret  the  art  of  ivory  in  its  relation  to  Chinese 
life  and  culture.  This  essay  is  divided  into  five  chap- 
ters dealing  with  the  elephant  in  China  and  the  trade 
in  elephant  ivory,  folk-lore  of  the  mammoth  and  trade 
in  mammoth  ivory,  trade  in  walrus  and  narwhal 
ivory,  ivory  substitutes,  and  objects  made  of  ivory.  It 
is  occasioned  by  a  collection  of  ivory  carvings  made 
by  me  in  China  in  1923  (Captain  Marshall  Field  Ex- 
pedition) and  recently  placed  on  exhibition,  and  may 
serve  as  a  guide  to  this  collection. 


2  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

THE  ELEPHANT  IN  CHINA  AND  TRADE  IN 
ELEPHANT  IVORY 
The  fact  that  the  elephant  was  known  to  the  an- 
cient Chinese  may  come  as  a  surprise  to  many  readers. 
The  former  existence  of  the  animal  on  Chinese  soil 
is  well  authenticated  by  linguistic,  pictographic,  his- 
torical, and  archaeological  evidence.  Not  only  have  the 
Chinese  an  old,  indigenous  word  for  the  pachyderm, 
but  they  also  possess  this  word  in  common  with  the 
eastern  branch  of  the  family  of  peoples  to  which  they 
belong  and  the  languages  of  which  are  closely  related. 
The  ancient  Chinese  designation  of  the  elephant  was 
dziang  or  ziang;  in  the  modern  dialects  of  the  north 
it  is  sicmg,  in  Shanghai  ziang,  in  Canton  tsong,  in 
Hakka  siong,  in  Fu-kien  ch'iong.  In  Burmese  we  cor- 
respondingly have  ch'ang,  in  Siamese  chang,  in  Shan 
tsan  or  sang,  in  Ahom  tyang,  in  Mo-so  tso  or  tson,  in 
An  garni  Naga  (Assam)  tsu.  This  fact  of  language 
warrants  the  conclusion  that  all  these  tribes  must  have 
been  acquainted  with  the  animal  from  ancient  times 
and  even  in  a  prehistoric  period  when  they  still  formed 
a  homogeneous  stock.  The  Tibetans,  akin  to  the  Chi- 
nese in  language,  are  outside  of  the  pale  of  this  devel- 
opment and  designate  the  elephant  as  the  "great  bull" 
or  the  "bull  of  Nepal"  (in  the  same  manner  as  the 
Romans  when  they  first  saw  elephants  in  the  war  with 
Pyrrhus  spoke  of  "Lucanian  oxen"),  thus  indicating 
that  they  made  its  acquaintance  only  in  late  historical 
times  on  coming  in  contact  with  India  and  Nepal  (sev- 
enth and  eighth  centuries  A.D.). 

The  written  symbol  for  the  elephant  was  con- 
ceived in  ancient  China  in  that  early  epoch  when  writ- 
ing was  still  in  the  purely  pictographic  stage.  The 
primeval  pictogram  denoting  the  elephant  unmistak- 
ably represents  it  with  its  principal  characteristics, — 
the  trunk,  a  large  head  with  two  protruding  tusks,  and 
body  with  four  feet  and  tail  (Figs.  1,  3-6).    In  Fig.  1 


The  Elephant  in  Ancient  China 


Fig.  1 
Archaic  Forms  of  the  Written  Symbol  for  the  Elephant. 

w[rv 

Fig.  2 
Elephant  from  a  Bell  of  the  Shane  Period,  about  1500  B.C. 


Fig.  3  Fig.  4 

Symbols  of  the  Elephant  from  Inscriptions  on  Bronzes  of  the  Chou  Period. 


Fig.  6 

Elephant  from  a  Bronze  Beaker  of  the 

Chou  Period. 


Fig.  6 
Elephant  from  a  Bronze  of  the  Shang 
Period,  applied  to  a  Seal  of  Later  Date. 


i^J 


Fig.  7 
Elephant  Head  in  the  Pictographic  Writing  of  the  Mo-so. 


4  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

seven  different  old  forms  of  the  character  are  repro- 
duced ;  these  finally  led  to  the  stage  in  No.  7  in  about 
a.d.  100,  which  approaches  very  closely  the  modern 
form  (Fig.  13  on  p.  21). 

In  the  inscriptions  cast  on  the  archaic  bronze  ves- 
sels of  the  Shang  (1783-1123  B.C.)  and  Chou  dynasties 
(1122-247  B.C.)  the  symbol  of  the  elephant  is  not  in- 
frequently represented.  Fig.  3  is  reproduced  from  the 
Po  ku  t'u  lu  (chap.  2,  p.  24),  the  catalogue  of  bronzes 
in  the  possession  of  the  Sung  emperors,  published  by 
Wang  Fu  in  a.d.  1107;  it  occurs  on  a  bronze  tripod 
vessel  ascribed  to  the  Chou  period.  Fig.  4,  of  the  same 
type,  is  from  a  vessel  of  the  same  period  in  a  Japanese 
collection.  Fig.  5  is  taken  from  a  bronze  beaker  in  the 
Imperial  Museum  of  Peking.  Fig.  6  represents  an 
elephant  figure  applied  to  a  seal  and  said  to  go  back 
to  the  Shang  period.  Fig.  7  is  the  sign  for  the  ele- 
phant in  the  pictographic  writing  of  the  Mo-so,  an 
aboriginal  tribe  in  Yiin-nan  Province. 

The  most  remarkable  representation  of  the  ele- 
phant in  the  Shang  period  (1783-1123  B.C.)  occurs  in 
a  bronze  bell  discovered  in  Shan-tung  Province  and 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  an  emperor  who  reigned 
1506-1491  B.C.  The  rim  of  this  bell  is  decorated  with 
a  row  of  elephants  of  naturalistic  style  (Fig.  2;  cf. 
L.  C.  Hopkins,  Development  of  Chinese  Writing,  1909, 
p.  15) .  Under  the  Chou  we  usually  meet  the  hieratic, 
strongly  conventional  forms,  but  also  very  artistic  ap- 
plications of  elephant  designs  to  the  decoration  of 
bronze  vessels  (Figs.  8-9). 

In  the  ancient  Rituals  (Li  ki  and  /  li)  are  men- 
tioned two  types  of  ceremonial  vessels  designated  as 
"elephant  goblets."  The  Chinese  commentators  have 
exerted  their  ingenuity  in  explaining  what  these  ves- 
sels are.  One  says  that  they  were  adorned  with  ivory ; 
another  holds  that  the  entire  vessel  was  made  in  the 
shape  of  an  elephant;  another  interprets  that  it  was 


The  Elephant  in  Ancient  China  5 

decorated  with  the  picture  of  an  elephant ;  others  again 
take  the  word  siang  in  the  sense  of  "form,  image,  pic- 
ture" and  conclude  that  the  goblet  was  adorned  with 
the  design  of  a  phoenix.  Considering  the  archaeolo- 
gical facts,  i.e.,  the  bronze  vessels  which  have  come 


Fig:.  8 
Elephant  Head  Projecting  from  the  Side  of  a  Bronze  Beaker. 

down  to  us  from  the  archaic  period  of  the  Shang  and 
Chou  dynasties  (1783-247  B.C.),  we  find  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  these  provided  with  feet  shaped  into  elephant's 
heads  terminating  in  a  trunk,  the  latter  forming  the 
foot  of  the  vessel.     This  motive  is  particularly  con- 


Fig.  9 

Elephant  Heads  aa  Decorations  on  a  Bronze  Vessel. 

spicuous  in  the  tripod  colanders  (called  hien)  which 
represent  the  combination  of  a  stove  with  a  cooking- 
vessel  used  for  steaming  grain  and  herbs  in  ancestral 
worship ;  a  charcoal  fire  was  built  in  the  hollow  tripod 
base  which  is  separated  by  a  hinged  grate  from  the 


6  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

upper  receptacle  holding  the  articles  to  be  steamed.  A 
good  example  of  a  vessel  of  this  type  is  on  exhibition 
in  the  centre  of  Case  1,  Blackstone  Chinese  Collection. 
The  artistic  motive  of  the  elephant-foot  in  bronzes  has 
persisted  in  Chinese  art  throughout  the  centuries  down 
to  the  K'ien-lung  period  (1736-95)  ;  it  is  likewise  vis- 
ible in  the  Han  mortuary  pottery  (206  B.C. — a.d.  220) . 
In  the  monuments  of  the  Han  period  there  are 
highly  naturalistic  representations  of  the  elephant  in 
scenes  carved  on  tomb  sculptures.  One  of  these  illus- 
trated in  Fig.  10  is  depicted  on  one  of  the  eight  stone 


Fig.  10 
Elephant  on  Bas-relief  of  the  Han  Period,  First  Century  a.d. 

slabs  forming  the  remnants  of  a  mortuary  chamber 
and  found  on  the  hill  Hiao-t'ang-shan  northwest  of  the 
city  Fei-ch'eng  in  western  Shan-tung.  The  elephant 
mounted  by  three  mahouts  equipped  with  iron  hooks 
is  shown  in  a  long  procession  of  figures  forming  the 
retinue  of  a  "barbarian"  prince.  It  is  certain  that  the 
elephant  did  not  exist  in  Shan-tung  at  that  time,  but 
it  is  equally  certain  that  the  Han  artist  must  have 
drawn  the  animal  from  life. 

In  the  beginnings  of  history  the  Chinese  were  re- 
stricted to  what  is  now  northern  China  in  the  valley 
of  the  Yellow  River,  and  physical  and  climatic  condi- 


The  Elephant  in  Ancient  China  7 

tions  of  the  country  then  were  to  some  extent  differ- 
ent from  what  they  are  at  present:  the  mountain- 
ranges  were  still  crowned  by  dense  forests  haunted  by 
great  numbers  of  wild  beasts  among  which  were  ele- 
phants. As  the  farmers  (and  the  Chinese  were  a 
nation  of  farmers)  gradually  advanced  and  cleared  the 
jungle,  the  elephant  gradually  retreated  farther  south, 
or  was  exterminated.  This  may  have  been  accom- 
plished by  the  beginning  of  the  first  millennium  B.C., 
but  the  recollection  of  the  animal  survived  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  for  many  centuries  later.  By  the 
middle  of  the  first  millennium  B.C.  the  habitat  of  the 
elephant  became  restricted  to  the  Yang-tse  Valley,  ex- 
tending from  far-west  Se-ch'wan  to  the  sea,  and  the 
regions  still  farther  south  and  west,  as  will  be  demon- 
strated hereafter  in  detail. 

An  ancient  saying,  presumably  of  proverbial  char- 
acter (recorded  in  the  Tso  chwan  under  the  year  548 
B.C.)  was  to  the  effect  that  the  elephant  has  tusks 
which  lead  to  the  destruction  of  its  body,  because  of 
their  use  as  gifts. 

In  the  old  Book  of  Songs,  the  earliest  extant  col- 
lection of  Chinese  poetry,  an  allusion  is  made  to  ele- 
phant-tusks brought  as  tribute  by  the  wild  tribes 
bordering  the  river  Hwai,  which  flows  through  the 
provinces  of  An-hui  and  Ho-nan  and  empties  its  waters 
into  the  Hung-tse  Lake. 

Elephant-teeth  and  rhinoceros-hides  were  among 
the  products  sent  as  taxes  by  the  two  provinces  Yang- 
chou  and  King-chou, — the  former  covering  the  terri- 
tory south  and  north  of  the  Yang-tse  delta ;  the  latter, 
the  present  area  of  the  provinces  of  Hu-nan  and  Hu- 
pei. 

In  early  antiquity  elephant  ivory  was  perfectly 
known  and  wrought  into  articles  of  every-day  use  like 
spikes  or  pins  for  scratching  the  head  and  tips  for  the 
ends  of  bows.     Ivory  ranked  next  to  jade  and  gold. 


8  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

The  emperors  of  the  Chou  dynasty  (1122-247  B.C.)  had 
five  kinds  of  chariots  of  state,  three  of  which  were  cov- 
ered with  leather.  In  the  first  the  ends  of  the  prin- 
cipal parts  were  decorated  with  jade;  in  the  second, 
with  gold;  in  the  third,  with  ivory;  while  the  fourth 
was  of  plain  leather;  and  the  fifth,  of  wood.  The 
ceremonial  leather  cap  worn  by  the  emperors  was 
adorned  with  jade  ornaments  of  various  colors,  and 
in  the  place  where  it  fitted  over  the  nape  of  the  neck, 
had  a  foundation  of  ivory.  Confucius  is  said  to  have 
possessed  an  ivory  ring  five  inches  wide. 

Memoranda  or  writing-tablets  (hu)  used  by  the 
feudal  princes  and  great  prefects  were  made  of  ivory, 
while  the  emperor  had  the  prerogative  of  using  a  pol- 
ished jade  slab  for  the  same  purpose.  This  example 
shows  again  that  ivory  ranked  next  to  jade  in  value. 
The  ivory  tablet  of  the  feudal  princes  was  rounded  at 
the  top  and  straight  at  the  bottom  to  symbolize  that 
they  should  obey  the  Son  of  Heaven.  The  tablet  of 
the  great  prefects  was  rounded  both  at  the  top  and 
bottom  to  express  the  idea  that  they  had  only  superiors 
to  obey.  Such  tablets  were  carried  suspended  from 
the  girdle,  and  were  used  as  memoranda  or  for  jotting 
down  notes.  An  official,  when  he  had  an  audience  at 
court,  inscribed  his  report  on  the  tablet  and  recorded 
the  emperor's  reply  or  command.  At  a  later  time  they 
were  reserved  for  the  organs  of  government  and  be- 
came emblems  of  dignity. 

Chopsticks  were  originally  made  of  bamboo  or 
wood,  but  in  the  time  of  the  Chou  dynasty  (1122-247 
B.C.)  were  also  carved  from  elephant  ivory.  Accord- 
ing to  an  ancient  tradition,  the  man  who  first  con- 
ceived this  innovation,  was  Chou,  the  last  emperor  of 
the  precedig  Yin  or  Shang  dynasty,  notorious  for  his 
debauchery.  He  was  remonstrated  for  this  extrava- 
gance by  one  of  his  relatives  who  said,  "He  makes 
chopsticks  of  ivory!     Next  he  will  doubtless  make  a 


Archaic  Ivory  Carvings  9 

cup  of  jade,  finally  he  will  think  of  the  precious  and 
extraordinary  objects  of  distant  countries,  and  will 
have  them  carted  to  his  place.  From  that  moment  he 
will  crave  in  ever  increasing  numbers  chariots  and 
horses,  mansions  and  palaces,  and  there  will  be  no 
way  of  keeping  him  off." 

Fortunately  we  now  have  at  our  disposal  also  a 
few  ivory  carvings  of  the  archaic  epoch.  The  veteran 
Chinese  archaeologist,  Lo  Chen-yii,  made  a  few  of  these 
known  in  one  of  his  illustrated  works  in  Chinese.  They 
are  of  the  same  character  as  the  four  objects  illus- 
trated here  in  Plate  I.  That  in  Fig.  1  is  in  the  collec- 
tion of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York, 
the  photograph  being  due  to  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Bosch- 
Reitz,  curator  of  the  Oriental  Department.  It  evi- 
dently is  an  implement  used  for  untying  knots;  cor- 
responding implements  were  made  from  jade  (cf. 
"Jade,"  pp.  238-242).  It  is  firmly  and  handsomely 
carved  with  a  running  animal,  a  conventionalized  ani- 
mal's head  and  an  eye,  all  set  off  from  a  background 
formed  by  a  composition  of  square  and  triangular 
spirals.  This  implement  was  worn  suspended  at  the 
girdle,  being  regarded  as  a  token  of  maturity;  it  be- 
longed to  the  equipment  of  one  growing  into  manhood 
and  indicated  his  competency  for  the  management  of 
business,  however  intricate;  it  accordingly  symbolized 
a  man's  ability  to  solve  knotty  problems.  The  objects 
shown  in  Figs.  2-4  were  obtained  by  me  at  Peking  in 
1923.  The  plaque  in  Fig.  2,  though  bone-like  in  ap- 
pearance, is  decomposed  and  calcined  ivory ;  it  is  deeply 
incised  at  both  ends  with  a  band  of  geometric  designs. 
The  ivory  character  of  the  object  in  Fig.  3  is  unmis- 
takable; it  is  carved  on  both  sides  with  designs  which 
are  identical  with  those  found  in  the  contemporaneous 
bronze  vessels.  This  observation  also  holds  good  of 
Fig.  1.  Fig.  4  shows  the  hilt  or  top  of  a  knife  or 
dagger  engraved  on  both  sides  with  a  double  row  of 


10  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

angular  spiral  designs.  These  examples  of  ancient 
ivory  carving  differ  radically  in  style  and  technique 
from  any  later  works  in  ivory.  They  certainly  do  not 
go  to  prove  that  the  elephant  existed  in  ancient  times 
in  northern  China;  for  it  might  be  argued  that  the 
ivory  of  which  they  are  made  was  imported  as  well. 
The  ancient  Greeks  wrought  ivory  long  before  they 
became  acquainted  with  the  elephant.  Considering, 
however,  all  available  evidence,  the  conclusion  may  be 
hazarded  that  the  objects  in  question  were  made  of 
indigenous  ivory ;  at  any  rate,  they  are  good  witnesses 
in  confirmation  of  the  ancient  records. 

While  the  ancient  Chinese  were  acquainted  with 
the  elephant  and  used  its  ivory  for  various  purposes, 
it  must  be  stated,  on  the  other  hand,  that  they  do  not 
seem  to  have  taken  a  deeper  interest  in  the  animal.  It 
played  no  role  whatever  in  their  mythology  and  gave 
no  rise  to  religious  conceptions.  It  may  even  be  ques- 
tioned whether  the  elephant  was  hunted  by  the  Chinese 
themselves.  We  have  several  ancient  descriptions  of 
hunting-expeditions,  but  none  of  these  alludes  to  the 
chase  of  the  elephant.  The  passage  in  Mong-tse,  that 
Chou  Kung,  who  died  in  1105  B.C.,  "drove  far  away  the 
tiger,  leopard,  rhinoceros,  and  elephant  to  the  great 
joy  of  all  people"  is  the  only  one  from  which  occa- 
sional elephant-hunting  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese 
might  be  inferred.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  ele- 
phant was  usually  hunted  by  the  aboriginal  "bar- 
barous" tribes,  who  sold  the  ivory  to  the  Chinese  or 
with  it  paid  their  taxes  to  the  imperial  government, 
and  that  much  of  the  ivory  obtained  by  the  Chinese 
was  "dead"-  ivory  (of  animals  which'  died  a  natural 
death  in  the  jungle).  Han-Fei-tse,  a  philosopher,  who 
lived  in  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  observes  that  men 
but  rarely  see  a  live  elephant,  but  usually  encounter 
the  bones  of  a  dead  one.  Above  all, — and  this  obser- 
vation bears  out  the  point  in  question, — the  ancient 


The  Elephant  in  Ancient  China  11 

Chinese  never  made  any  effort  to  tame  or  train  the  ele- 
phant, as  was  done  by  the  nations  of  Indo-China,  Java, 
Ceylon,  and  India.  It  was  only  in  121  B.C.  that  the 
first  tame  elephant  was  sent  to  the  court  of  the  em- 
peror Wu  of  the  Han  dynasty  from  Nan  Yiie ;  that  is, 
the  country  in  the  southeast,  at  that  time  inhabited  by 
tribes  of  Annamese  origin.  The  commentator  of  the 
official  Annals  of  the  Han  Dynasty,  Ying  Shao,  feels 
obliged,  with  reference  to  this  passage,  to  define  what 
a  tame  elephant  is,  "It  is  docile,  can  make  obeisance 
and  rise  again,  and  quickly  grasps  man's  intentions." 
This,  accordingly,  was  something  entirely  novel  to  the 
Chinese.  Subsequently  such  gifts  of  trained  elephants 
from  the  south  are  mentioned  frequently;  they  made 
salaams  and  would  even  dance,  or  draw  a  carriage. 
Plutarch  {Of  Fortune)  writes,  "What  is  bigger  than 
an  elephant?  But  it  also  has  become  man's  plaything 
and  a  spectacle  at  public  solemnities;  and  it  learns  to 
skip,  dance,  and  kneel." 

There  is  an  old  tradition  that  when  the  emperor 
Shun  was  buried  at  Ts'ang-wu,  elephants  trampled 
down  the  earth  around  his  tumulus,  so  that  the  land 
looked  like  a  ploughed  field.  Ts'ang-wu  then  was  a 
territory  abounding  in  elephants;  it  was  situated  in 
what  is  now  the  district  of  Ning-yiian  in  the  prefecture 
of  Yung-chou,  Hu-nan  Province.  In  ancient  times  it 
was  part  of  the  state  of  Ch'u,  which  was  inhabited  by 
a  non-Chinese  population,  presumably  a  member  of 
the  widely  diffused  Tai  stock.  It  was  a  warlike  and 
aggressive  nation  settled  in  the  area  now  occupied  by 
the  two  provinces  of  Hu-pei  and  Hu-nan  on  both  banks 
of  the  middle  Yang-tse.  In  opposition  to  the  Chinese, 
the  inhabitants  of  Ch'u  seem  to  have  tamed  the  ele- 
phant to  a  certain  extent,  and  elephants  were  kept  at 
the  court  of  their  king.  There  is  one  instance  on 
record  to  the  effect  that  they  were  even  used  for  pur- 
poses of  war.     In  506  B.C.  the  kingdom  of  Ch'u  was 


12  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

invaded  and  temporarily  overrun  by  the  army  of  the 
king  of  Wu,  a  state  on  the  lower  Yang-tse.  Defeated 
in  the  field,  the  prince  of  Ch'u,  in  order  to  detain  his 
pursuers,  launched  against  the  enemy  a  flock  of  ele- 
phants with  lighted  torches  tied  to  their  tails.  This 
isolated  occurrence  does  not  prove  that  in  ancient 
central  China  elephants  were  really  trained  and  cus- 
tomarily employed  for  war:  the  act  of  the  defeated 
king  was  rather  a  counsel  of  despair  resorted  to  as  a 
last  stratagem;  had  he  actually  possessed  war-ele- 
phants, he  would  have  turned  them  to  more  effectual 
use  right  at  the  opening  of  the  engagement.  The  fact, 
however,  remains  that  in  early  times  the  Yang-tse 
Valley  swarmed  with  elephants,  that  they  were  hunted 
for  the  sake  of  their  ivory  and  hides,  and  also  that 
they  were  caught,  partially  tamed,  and  kept. 

The  elephant  must  have  survived  in  the  Yang-tse 
Valley  at  least  until  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  a.d. 
Isolated  occurrences  of  elephants  in  the  ancient  ter- 
ritory of  Ch'u  are  still  on  record  during  the  middle 
ages :  thus  we  are  informed  in  the  Annals  of  the  Sung 
Dynasty  that  in  A.D.  962  elephants  were  seen  in  the 
district  of  Hwang-pei  (lat.  30°  56',  in  the  prefecture  of 
Han-yang,  province  of  Hu-pei),  and  subsisted  on  the 
crops  of  the  people;  at  the  end  of  the  following  year 
they  were  captured  in  the  district  of  Nan-yang  (lat. 
33°06',  in  the  province  of  Ho-nan),  and  their  teeth 
and  skins  were  sent  as  a  gift  to  the  throne.  Again, 
in  a.d.  964,  elephants  appeared  in  the  same  locality, 
Nan-yang,  and  were  slain  by  foresters ;  teeth  and  skins 
were  dealt  with  as  in  the  preceding  case.  In  the  same 
year  elephants  were  observed  in  the  districts  of  Li- 
yang  (lat.  29°  37')  and  An-hiang  (lat.  29°  22'),  in  the 
province  of  Hu-nan ;  others  were  noticed  crossing  the 
Yang-tse  and  entering  the  district  of  Hwa-jung  (lat. 
29°  30',  in  the  prefecture  of  Yo-chou,  province  of 
Hu-nan),  and  others  even  reached  the  northern  part 


Elephants  in  China  during  the  Middle  Ages  13 

of  the  city  of  Li-yang.  In  A.D.  966  elephants  arrived 
spontaneously  at  the  capital. 

In  the  western  part  of  the  empire,  the  present 
province  of  Se-ch'wan,  formerly  styled  Shu,  elephants 
are  noted  in  early  records,  and  survived  there  at  least 
into  the  period  of  the  two  Han  dynasties  (206  b.c.-a.d. 
220),  during  which  they  were  sent  as  tribute  by  the 
native  chieftains  to  the  court  of  the  emperor  at 
Ch'ang-an,  where  they  were  kept  in  the  imperial  ani- 
mal-park. The  Han  emperors  were  exceedingly  fond 
of  curious  and  exotic  animals  and  plants,  and  organized 
a  sort  of  natural  history  museum  in  their  palaces. 

The  present  province  of  Yun-nan  was  originally 
inhabited  by  a  stock  of  peoples  designated  as  Tai  or 
Shan,  the  forbears  of  the  Siamese.  They  formed  a 
powerful  kingdom  which  was  destroyed  by  the  Mon- 
gols in  a.d.  1252.  The  Tai  were  a  warlike  and  chival- 
rous nation,  and  had  a  highly  organized  army.  Mili- 
tary service  was  compulsory,  and  every  adult  was  a 
soldier.  The  capital,  Ta-li,  was  the  centre  of  the  mili- 
tary industry,  where  harness  and  helmets  were  manu- 
factured from  elephant  skins. 

As  early  as  the  second  century  B.C.  an  unsuccess- 
ful Chinese  mission,  sent  out  for  the  exploration  of  the 
southwest,  received  a  dim  knowledge  of  an  "elephant- 
riding  nation"  living  farther  to  the  south  and  west. 
This  was  the  ancient  Tai  kingdom,  where  the  elephant 
played  an  important  part  in  the  life  of  both  rulers 
and  people,  in  court  pageantry,  as  a  riding  and  draught 
animal,  and  as  a  beast  of  burden.  The  elephant  was 
native  to  this  region  and  plentiful.  Fan  Cho,  who  in 
a.d.  860  wrote  an  interesting  account  of  the  aboriginal 
tribes  of  Yun-nan  (Man  shu),  says  that  elephants 
occurred  there  in  large  numbers,  and  were  caught  by 
men  who  kept  many  of  the  animals  to  draw  their 
ploughs.  The  same  is  also  reported  by  subsequent 
authors,  for  instance,  by  T'an  Ts'ui  in  1799.    Liu  Sun, 


14  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

who  lived  toward  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  and  who 
wrote  an  interesting  work  on  the  products  of  southern 
China  (Ling  piao  lu  i) ,  observed  in  Yiin-nan  that  e very- 
family  kept  elephants  for  carrying  loads  over  long 
distances,  exactly  as  oxen  and  horses  were  used  in 
China. 

The  Chinese  received  their  first  knowledge  of  In- 
dia when  Chang  K'ien,  during  his  memorable  mission 
to  the  western  countries,  sojourned  a  year  in  Bactria 
in  128  B.C.,  and  was  informed  that  the  people  of  India 
rode  on  elephants  to  fight  in  battle.  Subsequently  the 
Chinese  also  learned  the  fact  that  war-elephants  were 
employed  in  Persia  and  Camboja,  the  latter  country 
being  reported  to  have  two  hundred  thousand  of  them. 
The  introduction  of  fire-arms  put  an  end  to  the  use 
of  elephants  in  war,  and  the  Chinese  themselves  de- 
monstrated the  futility  of  this  mode  of  military  tactics. 
In  a.d.  1388,  while  Mu  Ying  was  governor  of  Yiin- 
nan,  he  gained  an  overwhelming  victory  over  the  Bur- 
mese, his  cannon  and  powerful  crossbows  proving  too 
much  for  the  mailed  elephants;  and  in  the  following 
year  Burma  acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of  China.  In 
Yiin-nan  the  elephant  survived  longer  than  anywhere 
else  in  China,  and  it  may  still  occur  here  and  there 
in  outlying  jungles.  The  native  tribes  use  bracelets 
and  large  ear-rings  of  ivory. 

In  the  two  southeastern  provinces,  Kwang-tung 
and  Kwang-si,  elephants  have  always  been  numerous 
and  persisted  through  many  centuries.  The  provinces 
of  Kwang-si  and  Yiin-nan  are  still  given  in  the  Ko  ku 
yao  lun  (written  by  Ts'ao  Chao  in  a.d.  1388)  as  pro- 
ducing ivory.  The  same  work  lists  Tonking  and  the 
countries  of  the  Southern  and  Western  Barbarians 
(Siam,  Burma,  India)  as  sending  ivory  to  China. 
The  ivory  of  the  Southern  Barbarians  is  extolled  as 
long  and  large;  that  of  Kwang-si  and  Annam  is  de- 


Elephants  in  Southern  China  15 

scribed  as  small  and  short,  and  a  kind  yielding  a  red 
powder  when  cut  by  a  saw  was  regarded  as  very  ex- 
cellent. 

In  the  seventh  century  a.d.  the  animal  was  still 
plentiful  in  Tonking,  as  well  as  in  the  prefectures  of 
Ch'ao-chou,  Hui-chou  and  Lei-chou  of  Kwang-tung 
Province,  and  was  captured  by  the  natives  who  re- 
garded its  flesh,  especially  that  of  the  trunk,  as  a 
great  delicacy.  The  tusks  of  the  Kwang-tung  variety 
are  described  as  small  and  red,  very  suitable  for  ivory 
tablets.  Chinese  writers,  further,  emphasize  the  fact 
that  their  elephants  were  all  dark  or  black  in  color, 
while  white  elephants  are  ascribed  to  the  distant  lands 
of  the  Arabs,  of  Fu-lin  (Syria),  and  India.  A  white 
elephant  was  sent  to  China  from  Gandhara  in  A.D.  509. 
It  was  kept  in  a  special  building  near  the  capital  Lo- 
yang  in  Ho-nan  Province.  A  white  elephant  was  sent 
from  Burma  to  Hui  Tsung,  emperor  of  the  Sung  dy- 
nasty, in  a.d.  1105. 

At  Canton  elephants  were  employed  as  late  as  the 
tenth  century  in  putting  criminals  to  death.  P'eng 
Ch'eng,  who  lived  in  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh 
century,  writes  in  his  Mo  k'o  hwi  si,  "In  the  district 
of  Chang-p'u  (lat.  24°  070  in  Chang-chou  fu  (Fu- 
kien) ,  which  is  adjoined  to  Chao-yang  fu  (in  northern 
Kwang-tung),  there  are  still  numerous  elephants  usu- 
ally encountered  in  herds  of  ten,  yet  they  are  harm- 
less. Solely  the  rogue  elephant  pursues  men  and 
tramples  them  down  till  their  flesh  and  bones  are 
reduced  to  a  pulp.  Of  all  elephants,  the  rogue  elephant 
is  the  most  ferocious." 

Chou  Ta-kwan  visited  Camboja  in  a.d.  1295-97, 
and  in  his  Memoirs  on  the  Customs  of  Camboja  writes, 
"The  ivory  from  the  tusk  of  an  elephant  killed  by 
means  of  a  pike  is  considered  best;  next  in  quality  is 
the  ivory  of  an  animal  which  was  found  shortly  after 


16  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

it  died  a  natural  death,  while  least  esteemed  is  that 
discovered  in  mountains  many  years  after  the  animal's 
death."  This  observation,  which  the  Chinese  learned 
from  the  Cambojans,  is  quite  correct ;  and  the  Chinese 
have  adopted  this  rule  until  the  present  day.  Even 
in  their  materia  medica  the  tusks  of  slain  elephants 
are  preferred  to  those  who  have  died  of  a  disease  or 
otherwise.  It  has  been  noted  that  the  "dead  ivory" 
(taken  from  a  dead  animal  some  time  after  its  natural 
death)  is  always  dull,  and  when  used,  will  be  covered 
with  brown  spots  of  irregular  size  and  very  opaque. 

The  Chinese  have  also  preserved  much  curious 
folk-lore  in  regard  to  the  elephant.  It  was  believed 
that  the  designs  in  elephant  tusks  were  formed  when 
the  animal  was  frightened  by  a  peal  of  thunder,  while 
the  patterns  in  the  horn  of  the  rhinoceros  were  sup- 
posed to  be  produced  when  the  animal  was  gazing  at 
the  moon.  This  notion  has  reference  to  the  "engine- 
turned"  pattern  (similar  to  that  on  the  back  of  a 
watch-case)  which  ivory  displays  in  cross  section.  It 
is  probably  due  to  this  peculiarity  of  internal  structure 
that  it  possesses  the  high  degree  of  elasticity  which 
forms  one  of  its  most  valuable  properties. 

Pliny  writes  that  the  elephants,  when  their  tusks 
have  fallen  out  either  accidentally  or  from  old  age, 
will  bury  them  in  the  ground.  The  ancient  Chinese 
told  a  similar  yarn,  according  to  which  the  animal 
would  shed  its  tusks  regularly  and  hide  them  in  a 
hole  dug  by  itself  for  this  purpose;  in  order  to  take 
them  away,  it  was  necessary  to  leave  a  pair  of  wooden 
teeth  in  their  place,  so  that  the  animal  would  not  notice 
the  theft.  In  regard  to  the  rhinoceros  it  was  also 
believed  that  it  annually  sheds  its  horn  and  that  a 
wooden  horn  must  be  deposited  in  lieu  of  the  real  one 
when  picked  up.  These  notions  were  naturally 
prompted  by  the  observation  that  detached  tusks  and 


Ivory  Trade  during  the  Middle  Ages  17 

horns  were  occasionally  found  in  the  wilderness,  which 
suggested  to  the  people  a  natural  process  akin  to  the 
shedding  of  cervine  antlers. 

During  the  middle  ages  ivory  was  imported  into 
China,  chiefly  by  the  Arabs,  from  several  states  in 
the  Malay  Peninsula,  from  Java,  Borneo,  the  eastern 
coast  of  Sumatra,  southern  India,  and  from  the  Somali 
Coast  of  eastern  Africa.  The  Chinese  of  the  twelfth 
century  knew  perfectly  well  that  the  African  ivory 
was  best  of  all,  and  speak  of  African  tusks  as  reaching 
a  weight  of  over  a  hundred  pounds.  Ivory  then  was  a 
sort  of  government  monopoly  in  China  inasmuch  as 
the  merchants  who  desired  to  import  it  required  an 
official  license  for  tusks  weighing  thirty  pounds  or 
over.  The  tusks  imported  by  the  Arabs  are  described 
by  a  contemporary  observer  as  being  straight  and  of 
a  clear,  white  color,  with  patterns  displaying  delicate 
lines.  In  weight  they  varied  from  fifty  to  a  hundred 
pounds,  whereas  the  tusks  coming  from  Tonking  and 
Camboja  were  small,  weighing  only  from  ten  to  twenty 
or  thirty  pounds,  and  had  a  reddish  tint.  The  African 
ivory  was  designated  as  "great  ivory"  (Ling  wax  tai  ta, 
written  by  Chou  K'ii-fei  in  1178).  In  the  African 
species  both  sexes  are  furnished  with  tusks  of  large 
size,  while  in  the  Asiatic  species  they  are  generally 
restricted  to  the  males,  and  even  then  are  but  poorly 
developed.  Masudi,  an  Arabic  geographer  (a.d.  983), 
informs  us  that  Arabic  ships  brought  the  ivory  of  the 
Zenj,  as  the  Negroes  were  called  by  the  Arabs,  into 
the  country  of  Oman  on  the  east  coast  of  Arabia, 
whence  the  traders  transhipped  it  to  India  and  China, 
adding  in  a  tone  of  regret  that  ivory  would  be  plentiful 
in  the  Musulman  countries  were  it  not  directed  to 
foreign  ports.  He  further  states  that  the  tusks  en- 
tirely straight  or  but  little  curved  are  held  in  high 
esteem  by  the  Chinese  and  that  these  serve  for  the 
manufacture  of  palanquins  for  persons  of  high  rank; 


18  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

no  important  official  would  dare  present  himself  in 
the  palace  of  the  king  in  a  chair  made  of  another 
material  than  ivory.  Masudi  writes  also  that  the 
Negroes  themselves  made  no  use  of  ivory  and  did  not 
understand,  like  the  Hindu,  to  tame  the  elephant.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  the  large  straight  tusks  command 
the  highest  price  in  China  even  at  the  present  time. 

Kubilai  (a.d.  1214-94),  the  great  Mongol  sover- 
eign of  China,  was  famed  for  the  large  number  of 
elephants  in  his  possession."  The  nucleus  of  his  stock 
was  formed  by  two  hundred  animals  captured  in  a 
fierce  battle  of  the  Mongols  against  the  Burmese  in 
a.d.  1277.  The  king  of  Burma,  as  Marco  Polo  informs 
us,  opposed  the  invaders  with  two  thousand  elephants, 
"on  each  of  which  was  set  a  tower  of  timber,  well 
framed  and  strong,  and  carrying  from  twelve  to  six- 
teen well-armed  fighting  men."  The  elephants  could 
not  withstand  the  force  of  the  Mongol  arrows,  but 
turned  tail  and  fled.  In  another  chapter  Polo  relates 
that  the  Great  Khan's  elephants  amounted  fully  to 
five  thousand  and  that  they  were  exhibited  on  the 
New  Year's  festival,  all  covered  with  rich  and  gay 
housings  of  inlaid  cloth  representing  beasts  and  birds, 
while  each  of  them  carried  on  its  back  two  splendid 
coffers  filled  with  the  emperor's  plate  and  other  costly 
furniture  required  for  the  court  on  the  occasion  of 
New  Year.  On  his  hunting  expeditions  the  Great 
Khan  was  carried  upon  four  elephants  in  a  fine  cham- 
ber made  of  timber,  lined  with  plates  of  beaten  gold, 
and  covered  with  tiger  skins. 

The  Manchu  emperors  still  maintained  an  ele- 
phant stud,  and  the  emperor  K'ien-lung  (1736-95)  had 
sixty  of  them.  When  the  emperor,  on  the  evening  be- 
fore the  winter  solstice,  proceeded  to  the  Altar  of 
Heaven  to  offer  sacrifice  at  dead  of  night,  he  mounted 
a  carriage  drawn  by  an  elephant. 


Elephants  under  the  Mongols  and  Manchus         19 

E.  Ysbrants  Ides,  envoy  of  the  Russian  czar  to 
the  emperor  of  China  in  the  years  1692-95,  reports, 
"The  emperor's  life-guards  were  clothed  in  red  calico, 
printed  with  red  figures,  and  wore  small  hats  with 
yellow  feathers.  They  were  armed  with  scimitars  and 
lances.  There  were  eight  white  saddle-horses  for  show. 
In  the  third  court  of  state  were  four  extraordinarily 
large  elephants,  one  of  which  was  white.  They  were 
all  covered  with  richly  embroidered  cloth,  and  their 
trappings  were  ornamented  with  silver  gilt.  On  their 
backs  was  a  finely  carved  wooden  castle  spacious 
enough  for  eight  persons.  Being  taken  out  of  the 
court,  I  mounted  one  of  the  emperor's  two-wheeled 
carts,  and  was  drawn  to  my  apartment  by  an  elephant. 
There  were  ten  persons  on  each  side  with  a  rope  in 
their  hands  fastened  to  the  elephant's  mouth  to  lead 
him;  and  on  his  neck  sat  a  man  with  an  iron  hook 
to  guide  him.  He  walked  at  his  ordinary  rate  of 
speed,  but  this  obliged  the  men  to  run,  in  order  to 
keep  up  with  him.  In  the  emperor's  stables  there  were 
fourteen  elephants:  they  made  them  roar,  sing  like  a 
canary,  neigh,  blow  a  trumpet,  go  down  on  their  knees, 
etc.  All  these  elephants  were  extraordinarily  large, 
and  the  teeth  of  some  a  full  fathom  long.  The  man- 
darins told  me  that  the  king  of  Siam  annually  sends 
several  by  way  of  tribute." 

John  Bell  of  Antermony,  when  he  was  at  Peking 
in  1721,  observed,  "After  dinner  we  saw  the  huge 
elephants  richly  caparisoned  in  gold  and  silver  stuffs. 
Each  had  a  driver.  We  stood  about  an  hour  admiring 
these  sagacious  animals,  who,  passing  before  us  at 
equal  distances,  returned  again  behind  the  stables, 
and  so  on,  round  and  round,  till  there  seemed  to  be 
no  end  of  the  procession.  The  plot,  however,  was  dis- 
covered by  the  features  and  dress  of  the  riders:  the 
chief  keeper  told  us  there  were  only  sixty  of  them. 
The  emperor  keeps  them  only  for  show,  and  makes  no 


20  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

use  of  them,  at  least  in  these  northern  parts.  Some  of 
them  knelt  and  made  obeisance  to  us;  others  sucked 
up  water  from  vessels,  and  spouted  it  through  their 
trunks  among  the  mob,  or  wherever  the  rider  directed." 

The  Earl  of  Macartney,  when  sent  as  ambassador 
of  Great  Britain  to  the  emperor  of  China  in  1792,  still 
saw  the  elephants  in  the  imperial  palace,  and  remarks 
that  they  were  brought  to  China  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  equator,  and  a  few  of  them  were  bred  to 
the  northward  of  the  Tropic.  The  Chinese  elephants,* 
he  says,  are  smaller  than  those  of  Cochin-China,  and 
of  a  lighter  hue;  they  are  literally  granivorous,  being 
generally  fed  with  rice  and  millet,  though  the  food  of 
that  animal  in  its  wild  state  consists  more  frequently 
of  the  tender  leaves  of  trees  and  shrubs  than  of  the 
seeds  or  blades  of  corn  or  grass. 

In  a  description  of  Peking  inserted  in  the  Chinese 
Repository  for  1834  it  is  said  that  at  that  time  not 
more  than  eight  or  ten  elephants  were  kept  in  the 
Siang  Fang  ("Elephants'  Palace")  and  were  used  to 
increase  the  pomp  of  some  processions  and  ceremonies 
of  the  emperor.  When  I  visited  the  building  in  ques- 
tion in  1901,  there  were  no  more  elephants  there. 

While  it  is  not  the  object  of  this  article  to  survey 
the  whole  development  of  the  elephant  motive  in  Chi- 
nese art,  which  would  require  a  profound  study  of 
Indian-Buddhistic  subjects,  a  few  remarks  may  be 
added  here  in  order  to  assist  the  reader  in  a  better 
understanding  of  some  representations  of  the  elephant 
in  the  Museum  collections.  The  Po  ku  t'u  lu  of  Wang 
Fu  (chap.  7,  p.  8)  and  the  Si  ts'ing  ku  kien  (chap.  9, 
pp.  25,  26),  the  catalogue  of  the  bronzes  of  the  em- 
peror K'ien-lung  published  in  1749,  which  follows 
Wang  Fu's  authority,  illustrate  and  describe  bronze 
figures  of  elephants  carrying  a  vessel  on  their  backs 
and  assign  these  to  the  Chou  period.    This  date,  how- 


The  Elephant  as  a  Motive  in  Art  21 

ever,  is  merely  prompted  by  the  fact  that  "elephant- 
vases"  (siang  tsun) ,  as  already  mentioned,  are  spoken 
of  in  the  ancient  Rituals.  The  art  of  the  Chou,  in 
fact,  represented  the  elephant  only  in  a  strongly  con- 
ventionalized, hieratic  form,  but  never  in  that  realis- 
tic manner  manifested  by  the  elephant-vases  of  the  two 
Chinese  catalogues.  These  obviously  exhibit  the  style 
of  the  Indian-Buddhistic  elephant  with  smiling  eyes 
and  harnessed  with  neat  trappings.  These  objects, 
therefore,  cannot  be  older  than  the  age  of  the  T'ang 
(a.d.  618-906) ,  and  this  type  has  ever  since  been  favor- 
ite with  the  bronze  founders  and  potters.  The  Museum 
has  a  good  elephant  figure  of  this  type  of  cast  bronze 
coming  down  from  the  Sung  period  (Fig.  14).  For 
comparative  purposes  are  added  two  elephant  designs 
of  the  T'ang  period  (a.d.  618-906)  in  Figs.  11  and  12, 


Fig.  11  Figr.  12  Fig.  13 

Brass  Chessmen  with  Designs  of  Elephants.  Ivory  Chessman  bearing 

T'ang  Period  (a.d.  618-906).  Written  Symbol  of  Elephant 

(Modern  Form). 

which  appear  on  brass  chessmen;  these  are  as  large 
and  as  flat  as  coins  and,  on  the  obverse,  bear  the  char- 
acter siang  ("elephant"),  in  the  same  manner  as  in 
the  modern  ivory  chessmen  (Fig.  13),  which  are  solely 
provided  with  the  characters  for  the  men,  not  with 
their  figures  as  was  customary  under  the  T'ang. 

In  the  K'ien-lung  period  (1736-95)  the  elephant 
was  a  favorite  art-motive.  Many  good  examples  of  its 
application  to  bronze  vessels  may  be  seen  in  Case  24 
of  the  Blackstone  Chinese  Collection.  In  a  censer 
shown  there  both  the  three  feet  and  the  two  handles 


22 


Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 


are  formed  by  realistic  figures  of  elephants ;  the  cover 
is  surmounted  by  the  figure  of  a  recumbent  elephant 
on  which  astride  is  a  turbaned  Mohammedan.  In  an- 
other censer  the  elephant  on  the  cover  carries  on  its 
back  a  basket  filled  with  coral  branches,  jewels,  and 
rhinoceros-horns  intended  as  gifts  for  the  emperor. 
There  is  also  a  set  of  five  altar-vessels  in  which  the 


Fig.  14 

Bronze  Figure  of  Elephant  Followed  by  Mahout.    Sung  Period  (a.d.  960-1278). 

Specimen  in  Blackstone  Chinese  Collection. 

elephant  is  the  leading  artistic  motive ;  the  ornaments 
in  the  animal's  caparison  and  trappings  are  indicated 
by  inlaid  coral  and  turquois  beads.  In  Fig.  15  the 
bronze  figure  of  an  elephant  of  the  period  is  shown. 

In  India  the  elephant  was  modelled  in  art  at  an 
early  time.  In  the  Museum's  collection  of  Gandhara 
sculptures   (Case  37,  Hall  32)   may  be  seen  a  small 


The  Elephant  as  a  Motive  in  Art 


23 


stone  figure  representing  an  elephant  of  naturalistic 
style  (first  01  second  century  A.D.). 

Live  elephants  were  transported  from  India  to 
Samarkand  and  Khotan  and  thence  overland  to  China. 


Fte.  15 

Bronze  Figure  of  Elephant  (K'ien-lun*  Period). 

Specimen  in  Blackstone  Chinese  Collection. 

Images  of  elephants  were  brought  along  the  same 
trade  route,  and  were  distributed  over  Central  Asia, 
Siberia,  and  Russia.  In  this  manner  peoples  who  had 
never  before  seen  an  elephant  became  familiar  with  its 


24  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

likeness  through  models  distributed  from  India.  Small 
elephants  of  metal  have  been  found  ir  Russian  soil, 
one  of  bronze  in  the  Government  of  Yekaterinoslav  and 
another  of  silver  beyond  the  Ural,  worshipped  by  the 
Ostyaks  as  an  idol.  The  former  i?  decorated  with  a 
purely  Indian  ornament,  the  so-ca]ied  grivatsa,  an  em- 
blem of  Qiva,  which  has  become  widely  known  also  in 
China.  It  must  hence  be  inferred  that  this  bronze 
elephant  found  in  Russian  soil  is  of  Indian  workman- 
ship, and  was  imported  into  Russia. 

The  elephant  is  quite  capable  of  standing  cold 
climates.  The  trip  of  an  elephant  to  the  northern- 
most part-t)i  Sweden  (lat.  64°)  is  on  record  in  the 
Smithsonian  Miscellaneous  Collections  (Vol.  47,  1905, 
p.  517). 

FOLK-LORE  OF  THE  MAMMOTH  AND  TRADE 
IN  MAMMOTH  IVORY 
The  ancient  Chinese  had  a  certain  knowledge  of 
the  mammoth  (Elephas  primigenius) ,  though  blended 
with  marvelous  details  and  embedded  in  the  ground 
of  folk-lore  rather  than  based  on  correct  observations. 
The  interesting  point  is  that  Chinese  traditions  re- 
garding the  animal  show  a  striking  resemblance  to 
those  of  Siberian  tribes.  The  Shen  i  king,  a  book  of 
wondrous  tales,  traditionally  ascribed  to  Tung-fang 
So,  minister  to  the  emperor  Wu  of  the  Han  dynasty 
(140-87  B.C.),  contains  the  following  passage:  "In 
the  regions  of  the  north,  where  ice  is  piled  up  over  a 
stretch  of  country  ten  thousand  miles  long  and  reaches 
a  thickness  of  a  thousand  feet,  there  is  a  rodent,  called 
k'i  shu,  living  beneath  the  ice  in  the  interior  of  the 
earth.  In  shape  it  is  like  a  rodent,  and  subsists  on 
herbs  and  trees.  Its  flesh  weighs  a  thousand  pounds 
and  may  be  used  as  dried  meat  for  food ;  it  is  eaten  to 
cool  the  body.  Its  hair  is  about  eight  feet  in  length, 
and  is  made  into  rugs,  which  are  used  as  bedding  and 


Folk-lore  of  the  Mammoth  25 

keep  out  the  cold.  The  hide  of  the  animal  yields  a 
covering  for  drums,  the  sound  of  which  is  audible  over 
a  distance  of  a  thousand  miles.  Its  hair  is  bound  to 
attract  rats.  Wherever  its  hair  may  be  found,  rats 
will  flock  together.". 

Another  term  for  the  mammoth  was  fen,  a  name 
which  refers  properly  to  a  species  of  mole  (Scapto- 
chirus  moschatus)  ;  it  was  also  called  "the  hidden 
rodent"  (yin  shu).  Hence  T'ao  Hung-king  (a.d.  452- 
536),  a  distinguished  physician  and  celebrated  adept 
in  the  mysteries  of  Taoism,  and  Ch'en  Ts'ang-k'i,  who 
wrote  a  materia  medica  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
century  aj>.,  speak  of  two  animus  of  the  name  fen  and 
discriminate  between  fen  as  a  sn^ll  mole  and  the  fen 
of  the  size  of  a  water-buffalo,  which  may  be  identical 
with  the  mammoth.  The  earliest  definition  of  the 
animal  fen,  as  given  in  the  ancient  dictionary  Erh  ya, 
is  that  of  "an  animal  which  moves  in  the  ground." 
As  the  same  was  supposed  in  reference  to  the  mam- 
moth, it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the  name  was  trans- 
ferred from  a  burrowing  mole  to  a  creature  apparently 
resembling  it  in  subterranean  habits.  It  is  striking, 
however,  that  in  none  of  the  Chinese  traditions  any 
allusion  is  made  to  the  ivory-furnishing  tusks. 

To  some  extent  the  Chinese  were  also  acquainted 
with  fossil  ivory.  Their  materia  medica  registers  two 
famous  articles  known  as  "dragon's  bones"  and  "drag- 
on's teeth,"  offered  for  sale  by  drug-stores.  The 
former  have  been  examined  microscopically  by  D. 
Hanbury  (Science  Papers,  p.  273)  and  proved  to  be, 
at  least  in  some  cases,  fossil  ivory.  Fossil  bones  of 
Stegodon  orientalis  of  Swinhoe  are  brought  from  Se- 
ch'wan  Province  in  large  broken  masses,  showing  the 
cancellous  structure  of  the  large  fossil  bones  of  pro- 
boscidians. Portions  of  limestone  matrix  bearing  the 
impressions  of  these  bones  are  sold  together  with  these 
genuine  fossils.    They  are  powdered  and  used  in  ague, 


26  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

fevers,  hemorrhages,  and  fluxes.  The  "dragon's  teeth," 
usually  found  in  marshy  ground  of  Se-chVan,  also  in 
Shen-si  and  Shan-si,  consist  of  foss;l  teeth  of  Rhino- 
ceros tichorhinus,  Stegodon  sinensis  and  Stegodon 
orientalis,  horns  of  Chalicotherw/m  sinense,  teeth  of 
Hyla  sinensis,  and  molars  of  horses,  mastodons,  ele- 
phants, and  hippotherium.  They  are  supposed  to  act 
on  the  liver  and  to  be  of  great  service  as  cordial  or 
sedative  remedies.  In  a  lot  of  dragon's  teeth  obtained 
by  me  for  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
New  York,  in  1902,  were  found  one  tooth  of  a  mas- 
todon, five  teeth  of  a  rr  inoceros,  two  molars  of  an  hip- 
parion,  and  one  tooth  of  an  undescribed  hipparion. 
Dragon's  bones  from  T'ai-yiian  in  Shan-si  and  Tsin- 
chou  in  Chi-li  are  mentioned  as  early  as  the  T'ang 
period  (a.d.  618-906). 

The  Chinese,  moreover,  possess  a  certain  num- 
ber of  accounts  which  allude  to  the  discovery  of  fossil 
animal-bones,  particularly  in  Yun-nan  and  Se-ch'wan, 
and  which  are  explained  by  the  people  as  the  remains 
of  saints  or  fairies,  in  the  same  manner  as  we  have 
the  giants'  bones  in  European  folk-lore.  These  notices 
are  so  vague,  of  course,  that  it  is  impossible  to  deter- 
mine the  character  of  these  bones.  There  are  other 
Chinese  descriptions  of  fabulous  animals  found  in 
Chinese  soil  which  led  some  European  writers  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Chinese  of  historical  times  were 
personally  acquainted  with  the  mammoth.  This,  how- 
ever, is  extremely  doubtful  and,  at  any  rate,  is  of  no 
interest  to  archaeology,  as  it  is  not  known  that  the 
Chinese  ever  made  any  industrial  use  of  mammoth  or 
any  other  fossil  bones.  The  "dragon's  bones"  and 
"dragon's  teeth"  were  employed  medicinally,  but  for 
no  other  purpose. 

In  the  years  1712-15,  a  Chinese  embassy  traversed 
Siberia  on  its  way  to  the  Volga  for  the  purpose  of 
inducing  the  Torgut,  a  Kalmuk  tribe  who  had  settled 


Chinese  Knowledge  of  the  Mammoth  27 

there  under  Russian  protection,  to  return  to  their  old 
homes  on  the  Chinese  frontier.  The  Manchu  Tulishen, 
the  envoy,  writes  in  his  Memoirs  in  reference  to  Yenis- 
seisk,  "In  the  coldest  parts  of  this  northern  country  is 
found  a  species  of  animal  which  burrows  under  the 
ground,  and  which  dies  when  exposed  to  the  sun  and 
air.  It  is  of  enormous  size  and  weighs  ten  thousand 
pounds.  Its  bones  are  very  white  and  bright  like  ivory. 
It  is  not  by  nature  a  very  powerful  animal,  and  is 
therefore  not  very  ferocious.  It  generally  occurs  on 
the  banks  of  rivers.  The  Russians  collect  the  bones 
of  this  animal,  in  order  to  make  cups,  saucers,  combs, 
and  other  small  articles.  The  flesh  of  the  animal  is 
of  a  very  cooling  quality,  and  is  eaten  as  a  remedy  in 
fevers.  The  foreign  name  of  this  animal  is  mo-men- 
to-wa  [i.e.  mammoth] ;  we  call  it  k'i  shu."  The  tran- 
scription is  based  on  Russian  mamontowa  (scil.  host, 
"bone").  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  Manchu 
official,  apparently  well  read  in  the  literature  of  China, 
had  wit  enough  to  identify  the  earth-wanderer  of  an- 
cient lore  with  the  mammoth  of  whom  he  heard  in 
Siberia.  The  Ts'e  yuan,  a  modern  Chinese  cyclopaedia 
published  by  the  Commercial  Press  of  Shanghai,  quotes 
a  portion  of  his  text  in  proof  of  the  fact  that  the 
word  fen  denotes  the  mammoth. 

In  1716  the  emperor  K'ang-hi,  who  was  fond  of 
natural  history,  wrote,  "The  books  say  that  in  the 
very  cold  regions  of  the  north  ice  forms  to  a  thick- 
ness of  a  hundred  feet  and  melts  not  even  in  the  spring 
or  summer.  This  region  is  now  known  actually  to  exist. 
Again,  the  Yuan  kien  lei  han  contains  the  following 
statement :  The  k'i  shu,  which  is  described  as  reach- 
ing the  weight  of  ten  thousand  pounds,  is  found  even 
at  the  present  day.  In  shape  it  resembles  the  elephant, 
and  its  tusks  are  like  those  of  the  same  beast,  but  the 
ivory  is  yellowish  in  color.'  In  both  these  points,  the 
ancient  books  are  confirmed."    Again,  in  1721,  in  the 


28  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

sixtieth  year  of  his  reign,  the  venerable  sovereign  re- 
curred to  the  same  topic  in  an  address  to  his  minis- 
ters, "While  all  the  assertions  found  in  books  are  not 
to  be  implicitly  believed,  there  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
statements  which,  however  false  and  absurd  they  may 
seem,  are  nevertheless  perfectly  well  founded.  Thus, 
for  instance,  Tung-fang  So  relates  that  in  the  regions 
of  the  north  ice  is  formed  to  a  thickness  of  a  thousand 
feet,  and  does  not  melt  either  in  the  winter  or  sum- 
mer. ♦  When  the  Russians  presented  themselves  at  our 
court  this  year,  they  stated  that  in  their  country,  at 
a  distance  of  something  over  twenty  degrees  from  the 
Pole,  there  is  what  is  called  the  Polar  Sea.  The  ice 
lies  frozen  there  in  solid  masses  and  prevents  the  ac- 
cess of  human  beings.  Thus,  for  the  first  time,  the 
truth  of  Tung-fang  So's  assertion  has  been  confirmed. 
Again  he  states  that  in  the  northern  regions,  under 
layers  of  ice,  is  found  a  large  animal  of  the  kind  of 
a  rodent,  the  flesh  of  which  weighs  a  thousand  pounds. 
Its  name  is  fen  shu.  It  burrows  under  the  ground 
and  dies  when  it  sees  the  light  of  the  sun  or  moon. 
Now,  in  Russia,  near  the  shores  of  the  northern  ocean, 
there  is  a  rodent  similar  to  an  elephant,  which  makes 
its  way  under  ground  and  which  expires  the  very 
moment  it  is  exposed  to  light  or  air.  Its  bones  re- 
semble ivory,  and  are  used  by  the  natives  in  manufac- 
turing cups,  platters,  combs,  and  pins.  Objects  like 
these  we  ourselves  have  seen,  and  we  have  been  led 
thereby  to  believe  in  the  truth  of  the  story." 

In  1666,  the  learned  Hollander  Nicolaus  Witsen, 
who  subsequently  became  mayor  of  Amsterdam,  paid 
a  visit  to  Moscow,  where  he  collected  the  materials  for 
his  work  "Noord  en  Oost  Tartarye,"  which  appeared 
in  1694.  This  work  introduced  for  the  first  time  the 
name  mammoth  to  western  Europe.  Witsen  describes 
how  elephants'  teeth  are  found  in  large  numbers  on 
the  banks  of  Siberian  rivers,  and  adds,  "By  the  in- 


The  Mammoth  in  Siberia  29 

landers  (the  Russian  settlers  in  Siberia)  these  teeth 
are  called  mammouttekoos  (for  Russian  kost,  "bone"), 
while  the  animal  itself  is  called  mamout."  Ludolf 
(Grammatica  russica,  p.  92,  1696)  writes  that  the 
Russians  believed  the  teeth  of  the  mammoth  to  belong 
to  an  animal  living  underground,  larger  than  any  above 
ground.  They  used  it  in  physic  in  lieu  of  and  for  the 
same  purpose  as  unicorn's  horn  (narwhal  tusk).  The 
more  sensible  among  the  Russians  affirmed  these  teeth 
to  be  of  an  elephant,  brought  thither  at  the  time  of 
the  deluge. 

The  etymology  of  the  word  mammoth  is  obscure. 
The  Russian  form  is  mamont  or  mamut.  It  has  been 
suggested  by  Strahlenberg  that  the  word  is  derived 
from  behemoth  (see  below,  p.  63)  through  the  medium 
of  an  Arabic  mehemoth.  Howorth  has  accepted  this 
theory,  but  it  is  by  no  means  convincing.  Byron  (The 
Deformed  Transformed,  III,  1)  has  confronted  the 
two  animals: 

When  the  lion  was  young, 

In  the  pride  of  his  might, 
Then   'twas  sport  for  the  strong 

To  embrace  him  in  fight; 
To  go  forth  with  a  pine 

For   a   spear,   'gainst   the   mammoth, 
Or  strike  through  the  ravine 

At  the  foaming  behemoth; 
While  man  was  in  stature 

As  towers  in  our  time, 
The  first  born  in  Nature, 

And,  like  her,  sublime! 

According  to  the  conception  of  the  Samoyeds,  the 
mammoth  is  a  gigantic  beast  which  lives  in  the  depth 
of  the  earth,  where  it  digs  for  itself  dark  pathways 
and  feeds  on  earth.  They  call  it  "stallion  of  the  earth" 
or  "the  master  of  the  earth."  They  account  for  its 
corpse  being  found  so  fresh  and  well  preserved  by  as- 
suming that  the  animal  is  still  alive.    Death,  however, 


30  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

they  contend,  is  the  fate  of  any  one  who  has  the  mis- 
fortune to  meet  on  his  way  the  bones  of  the  master  of 
the  earth ;  and  if  he  is  to  ward  off  this  penalty,  he  must 
sacrifice  a  reindeer  to  the  demons.  This  entitles  him 
to  the  possession  of  the  bones  and  to  using  or  selling 
them  as  he  pleases. 

In  the  country  of  the  Ostyaks  on  the  Irtysh  mam- 
moth-bones are  sometimes  found  in  the  slopes  of  steep 
banks  after  a  landslip.  Some  of  the  Ostyaks  look 
upon  them  as  water-sprites,  others  regard  them  as 
sacred  animals  living  under  ground  and  call  them 
"earth-oxen."  They  cannot  bear  the  daylight  and  must 
die  when  reaching  the  surface  of  the  earth  (cf.  the 
similar  Chinese  notion  above) .  Pieces  of  mineral  coal 
which  occur  on  the  banks  of  some  rivers  are  regarded 
as  the  livers  of  mammoths.  They  subsist  on  tree-roots 
and  hence  dig  up  the  earth,  so  that  they  undermine  the 
river-banks  and  finally  cause  their  collapse.  They  are 
also  fond  of  residing  in  the  depth  of  streams  and  lakes, 
and  their  presence  is  announced  by  the  agitation  of 
the  water  and  whirlpools.  Such  places  in  rivers  which 
are  looked  upon  as  abodes  of  mammoths  are  consid- 
ered sacred,  and  nets  must  not  be  cast  into  the  water. 
They  do  not  even  like  to  draw  there  water  for  drink- 
ing. In  the  winter  the  animals  sometimes  rise  to  the 
surface  of  the  water,  break  the  ice,  and  cause  a  tre- 
mendous noise.  They  are  harmless  to  man  and  cannot 
grant  him  luck  in  his  enterprises  or  health;  yet  the 
offerings  made  to  them  during  a  journey  insure  its 
successful  completion  by  guarding  against  landslips 
and  ice-breaks.  Other  animals  when  grown  old  may 
undergo  a  metamorphosis  into  mammoths;  elks  and 
reindeer,  even  bears,  may  change  their  status  for  a 
life  in  the  depth  of  the  waters  when  mammoth-horns 
will  grow  on  them.  Old  pikes  are  said  sometimes  to 
choose  the  deepest  spots  of  lakes  where  moss  will  grow 
on  their  heads  and  horns  on  their  front,  whence  it  is 


Folk-lore  of  the  Mammoth  in  Siberia  31 

concluded  that  old  pikes  also  are  gradually  trans- 
formed into  mammoths.  In  this  form  they  are  called 
pike-mammoth. 

The  Samoyeds  designate  the  mammoth  "earth- 
bull"  or  "earth-stag."  The  former  epithet  is  applied 
to  it  also  by  the  Wogul,  a  Finno-Ugrian  tribe.  The 
Mongols  and  Manchus  speak  of  the  "ice-rodent." 

The  Buryats,  a  branch  of  the  Mongols  living 
around  Lake  Baikal,  call  the  mammoth  arslan  ("lion") 
or  arsalyn  zan  ("lion-elephant").  They  believe  that 
its  bones  represent  a  smashed  dragon  (hi).  When  the 
dragons  have  grown  old,  they  take  refuge  in  the  earth. 
The  animal  is  further  connected  with  the  Biblical  story 
of  the  flood :  it  boasted  that  it  could  not  perish  on  ac- 
count of  its  size,  and  refused  to  enter  the  ark.  It 
swam  around  for  several  days,  but  was  finally  drowned. 
Hence  its  bones  are  now  found  in  the  ground.  The 
Russians  of  Transbaikalia  have  a  similar  story,  add- 
ing that  while  the  mammoth  was  floating,  birds  perched 
on  its  "horns,"  as  they  could  not  find  a  dry  place ;  for 
a  long  time  it  struggled  against  the  flood,  but  the  birds 
increased  to  such  a  number  that  its  strength  finally 
dwindled,  and  it  perished  after  a  few  days. 

In  1611  an  English  navigator,  Jonas  Logan,  visited 
the  land  of  the  Samoyeds  and  returned  to  London  with 
an  elephant's  tooth  which  he  had  bought  from  them. 
This  presumably  was  the  first  mammoth  tooth  that 
came  to  England.  The  Scotch  traveller,  Bell  of  Anter- 
mony,  observed  in  most  of  the  towns  which  he  passed 
between  Tobolsk  and  Yenisseisk  many  mammons' 
horns,  so  called  by  the  natives.  Some  of  them  were 
very  entire  and  fresh  like  the  best  ivory  in  every  cir- 
cumstance excepting  only  the  color,  which  was  of  a 
yellowish  hue;  others  of  them  mouldered  away  at  the 
ends  and,  when  sawn  asunder,  were  prettily  clouded. 
The  people  made  snuff-boxes,  combs,  and  diverse  sorts 
of  turnery-ware  of  them.     "I  brought  a  large  tooth 


32  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

or  mammons'  horn  with  me  to  England,"  he  adds,  "and 
presented  it  to  my  worthy  friend,  Hans  Sloane,  who 
gave  it  a  place  in  his  famous  museum,  and  was  of 
opinion  also  that  it  was  the  tooth  of  an  elephant. 
This  tooth  was  found  in  the  River  Obi  at  a  place  called 
Surgut."  The  Russians  developed  a  lively  trade  in 
mammoth  ivory  from  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  when  Liakhoff,  a  merchant,  discovered  vast 
stores  of  mammoth  bones  between  the  rivers  Khotanga 
and  Anadyr  and  obtained  the  exclusive  right  to  dig 
for  them.  The  quantity  of  fossil  ivory  which  was 
sent  from  Siberia  to  the  European  markets  was  enor- 
mous. In  1821,  an  ivory-hunter  from  Yakutsk  brought 
back  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  ivory,  each  tusk 
weighing  on  an  average  about  a  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds.  In  the  London  market  as  many  as  1,635  mam- 
moth tusks  were  sold  in  a  single  year,  averaging  150 
pounds  in  weight;  of  these  14  per  cent  were  of  the 
best  quality,  17  per  cent  inferior,  while  more  than  half 
were  useless  commercially.  The  total  number  of  mam- 
moths represented  by  the  output  of  fossil  ivory  since 
the  Russian  colonization  of  Siberia  is  estimated  as 
not  being  far  from  forty  thousand. 

Vague  allusions  to  the  mammoth  loom  up  also  in 
the  writings  of  the  Arabs  of  the  middle  ages.  Thus 
al-Beruni  (a.d.  973-1048),  in  his  discussion  of  the 
substance  khutu,  which,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  follow- 
ing chapter,  applies  in  the  main  to  walrus  ivory,  re- 
marks that  it  is  the  frontal  bone  of  a  bull  who  lives 
in  the  country  of  the  Kirgiz.  In  an  Arabic  chronicle, 
written  in  a.d.  1076,  are  mentioned  teeth  resembling 
the  tusks  of  elephants  which  were  obtained  in  the 
country  of  the  Bulgars  who  at  that  time  lived  on  the 
Volga.  These  teeth  were  thence  exported  to  Kharizm 
(now  Khiva),  where  they  were  wrought  into  combs, 
boxes,  and  other  objects.  Abu  Hamid,  who  visited  the 
country  of  the  Bulgars  in  a.d.  1136,  observed  there 


Mammoth  Ivory  in  Russia  and  among  Arabs  33 

"a  tooth  four  spans  long  and  two  spans  wide  and  the 
cranium  of  the  animal  resembling  a  dome ;  teeth  were 
also  found  in  the  ground  like  elephant's  tusks,  white 
like  snow,  one  weighing  two  hundred  menn;  it  was  not 
known  from  what  animal  it  was  derived;  it  was 
wrought  like  ivory,  but  was  stronger  than  the  latter 
and  unbreakable." 

It  is  possible,  as  is  assumed  by  several  scholars, 
that  the  question  is  here  of  mammoth  tusks ;  but  it  is 
equally  possible  that  it  was  simply  elephants'  tusks. 
P.  S.  Pallas  (Reise  durch  verschiedene  Provinzen  des 
russischen  Reichs,  Vol.  I,  p.  140,  1801)  found  in  the 
Volga  territory  several  bones  and  even  the  cranium 
of  an  elephant  on  the  banks  of  a  rivulet;  at  Simbirsk 
he  saw  some  objects  wrought  from  the  ivory  found 
there  and  which  could  not  be  distinguished  from 
"healthy"  ivory;  only  the  tip  of  the  tooth  had  under- 
gone a  certain  degree  of  calcination.  Another  ele- 
phant's tusk  found  on  the  bank  of  that  rivulet  he  de- 
scribes as  having  assumed  an  intensely  yellow  color. 
Similar  discoveries  may  have  formed  the  source  of 
supply  for  the  Bulgar  ivory. 

The  Chinese  were  acquainted  with  Kharizm  as 
early  as  the  Tang  dynasty  and  emphasize  the  point 
that  it  was  the  only  country  of  western  Asia,  where 
carts  drawn  by  oxen  were  to  be  found  and  that  the 
merchants  travelled  around  in  these  vehicles.  In  A.D. 
751  a  prince  of  that  country  sent  an  embassy  to  China 
with  gifts.  The  ancient  capital  of  the  country,  Urgenj, 
was  captured  and  destroyed  by  the  Mongols  in  A.D. 
1221.  Khiva,  the  present  capital  of  Kharizm  or  the 
Khanate  of  Khiva,  is  situated  about  a  hundred  miles 
southeast  of  ancient  Urgenj.  If  Kharizm  was  a  centre 
of  the  mammoth-ivory  industry  during  the  middle 
ages,  we  receive  in  this  manner  a  clew  as  to  how  this 
material  may  have  found  its  way  to  China. 


34  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

In  the  work  of  the  learned  Philipp  Johann  von 
Strahlenberg,  which  appeared  at  Stockholm  in  1730, 
we  are  informed  that  great  quantities  of  white  mam- 
moth tusks  were  carried  from  Siberia  for  sale  to 
China.  Strahlenberg  was  a  Swedish  officer  in  the 
service  of  Charles  XII,  was  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Russians  in  the  battle  of  Pultava,  and  resided  in  Si- 
beria for  thirteen  years.  It  is  only  surprising  that 
Strahlenberg  characterizes  these  teeth  exported  to 
China  as  white,  while  in  the  same  breath  he  describes 
mammoth  tusks  as  yellow,  some  as  brown  as  coconuts 
and  even  black-blue.  It  has  therefore  been  suggested 
by  Ranking  that  the  teeth  in  question  were  walrus 
teeth. 

"In  the  northern  part  of  Siberia,  so  great  is  the 
abundance  of  mammoth  tusks,  that  for  a  very  long 
period  there  has  been  a  regular  export  of  mammoth 
ivory,  both  eastward  to  China  and  westward  to  Eu- 
rope" (N.  N.  Hutchinson,  Extinct  Monsters,  p.  183). 
This  view,  however,  must  be  adopted  only  with  cer- 
tain reservations.  As  far  as  the  last  three  centuries 
are  concerned,  it  is  without  any  doubt  correct,  but 
going  beyond  the  seventeenth  century,  the  matter  be- 
comes one  of  uncertainty,  and  we  have  no  definite 
evidence  either  archaeological  or  historical.  The 
archaeology  of  Siberia  is  fairly  well  known,  and 
no  ivory  has  as  yet  been  discovered  there  in  any 
grave  or  otherwise.  The  notices  of  the  Arabs 
given  above  refer  to  tusks  found  in  the  territory 
of  the  Volga,  but  the  Arabs  never  had  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  Siberian  mammoth.  As  will  be  seen  in 
the  following  chapter,  what  the  Arabs  traded  was 
chiefly  walrus  ivory.  In  regard  to  the  Chinese  we  are 
confronted  with  a  puzzling  fact:  they  have  ancient 
traditions  and  certain  notions  of  the  mammoth  as  an 
animal,  but  they  never  allude  to  its  tusks  or  ivory. 
Only  as  late  as  1716  the  emperor  K'ang-hi  learned  from 


Trade  in  Mammoth  Ivory  35 

the  Russians  that  the  animal  furnishes  ivory,  and 
about  this  time  the  same  fact  dawned  upon  the  envoy 
Tulishen  when  he  was  in  the  heart  of  Siberia.  Pre- 
viously, however,  the  Chinese,  if  we  rely  on  their  lit- 
erature, possessed  no  knowledge  of  mammoth  ivory. 
Howorth  argues  that  "from  early  times  mammoth 
ivory  was  sent  from  Siberia  to  China,  that  the  Chi- 
nese had  a  knowledge  of  Siberia  and  its  products  from 
a  very  early  time,  a  fact  not  otherwise  improbable," 
and  he  adds  that  the  throne  which  Carpini  describes 
as  having  been  made  for  the  great  Mongol  Khan 
Kuyuk  by  the  jeweller  Cosmas  out  of  ivory  was  doubt- 
less made  from  fossil  ivory,  showing  it  was  well  known 
in  Mongolia  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Carpini,  in  his 
Latin  text,  uses  merely  the  word  "ivory"  (ebur),  and 
considering  the  vast  number  of  elephants  kept  in  the 
empire  of  the  Mongols  (above,  p.  18),  there  is  no 
reason  why  Kuyuk's  throne  could  not  have  been  made 
of  plain  elephant  ivory  as  well.  True  it  is,  as  Howorth 
says,  that  from  an  early  date  the  Chinese  were  well 
acquainted  with  the  peoples  and  products  of  Siberia; 
in  fact,  nearly  all  we  know  about  this  subject  in  times 
prior  to  the  Russian  occupation  we  owe  to  the  official 
annals  and  other  records  of  the  Chinese.  They  tell 
us  a  great  deal  about  the  fine  Siberian  peltry  like  the 
sable,  marten,  fox,  lynx,  beaver,  but  never  mention 
any  ivory  used  by  a  tribe  of  Siberia  or  imported  from 
there  into  China.  This  silence  surely  is  not  fortuitous, 
it  is  ominous.  Considering  the  movements  and  migra- 
tions of  the  former  peoples  inhabiting  Siberia,  it  is 
most  unlikely  that  the  northernmost  parts  of  the  coun- 
try were  inhabited  in  very  early  times.  These  inhos- 
pitable regions  were  only  the  refuge  of  weaker  tribes 
who  were  gradually  pushed  northward  by  more  power- 
ful neighbors.  It  was  in  the  tundras  and  along  the 
littoral  of  northern  and  northeastern  Siberia  that  most 
of  the  remains  of  the  mammoth  were  discovered,  and 


36  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

this  was  possible  only  in  times  after  the  northward 
movement  of  the  tribes. 

There  is  another  reason  why  a  history  of  the  trade 
in  mammoth  ivory  cannot  be  written  with  an  absolute 
degree  of  certainty  or  cannot  be  given,  so  to  speak,  a 
clean  bill  of  health.  The  accounts  we  have  are  con- 
fused, and  in  many  of  them  the  tusks  of  mammoth, 
walrus  and  narwhal,  and  even  fossil  rhinoceros-horn, 
are  hopelessly  mixed  up.  These  various  products  are 
all  comprised  in  Siberia  under  the  commercial  term 
"horn."  The  Yakut,  for  instance,  indiscriminately 
designate  mammoth  and  walrus  ivory  as  "horn" 
(muos).  To  us  who  have  a  clear  notion  of  the  ani- 
mals this  lack  of  discriminating  faculty  may  seem 
strange  at  first  sight,  but  looking  into  the  conditions 
under  which  the  said  animal  products  are  found  in 
Siberia  we  find  it  easy  to  gauge  the  situation.  Im- 
mense deposits  of  mammoth  and  rhinoceros  bones  are 
accumulated  together  with  masses  of  stranded  wal- 
ruses and  fossil  narwhal  tusks  along  the  northern 
littoral,  and  are  collected  promiscuously  by  the  treas- 
ure-hunters. Walrus  and  narwhal  as  live  animals  are 
familiar  solely  to  the  maritime  tribes,  and  totally  un- 
known to  the  inland  peoples.  Again,  the  mammoth 
and  the  rhinoceros,  which  occur  there  only  in  fossil 
remains,  are  unknown  as  animals  to  any  of  them,  and 
their  bones  accordingly  are  not  distinguished.  It  must 
further  be  taken  into  consideration  that  in  many  cases 
it  is  not  a  complete  tusk  or  horn  which  is  traded  by 
the  ivory  hunters,  but  merely  fragmentary  pieces; 
rotten  and  hollow  portions  are  cut  off  as  useless,  as 
soon  as  the  best-preserved  pieces  have  been  picked  out, 
and  the  remainders  if  still  of  a  considerable  size  may 
again  be  sawed  into  smaller  portions  to  be  rendered 
fit  for  transportation  on  pack-horses.  The  distant 
trader  who  will  buy  up  this  cargo  and  the  consumer 
still  more  remote  from  the  place  of  provenience  hardly 


Trade  in  Mammoth  and  Walrus  Ivory  37 

have  any  means  of  obtaining  a  clear  idea  of  the  true 
origin  of  the  product,  still  less  of  the  character  of  the 
animal  from  which  it  may  have  come.  The  door  was 
thus  thrown  widely  open  for  fabulous  speculations  of 
all  sorts  in  regard  to  the  "horn."  This  term  is  en- 
countered everywhere  in  Europe,  among  the  Arabs, 
in  China,  Korea,  and  Japan,  with  reference  to  walrus 
and  narwhal  tusks,  as  the  following  chapter  will 
demonstrate. 

TRADE  IN  WALRUS  AND  NARWHAL  IVORY 
The  trade  in  walrus  and  narwhal  ivory  is  a  verit- 
able romance  in  the  history  of  commerce,  and  it  is  not 
generally  known  that  in  times  long  prior  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Arctic  shores  of  North  America  and 
long  before  the  two  animals  were  described  in  our 
natural  history,  a  lively  traffic  in  this  kind  of  ivory  was 
carried  on  all  over  Asia  and  Europe.  As  this  subject 
has  never  been  clearly  set  forth  in  any  book  and  is 
based  on  researches  almost  entirely  my  own,  I  hope 
that  a  somewhat  detailed  digest  of  the  matter  will  be 
welcome.  Those  desirous  of  knowing  the  original 
sources  and  the  exact  texts  of  the  documents  may  fall 
back  on  my  previous  studies  of  the  subject  cited  in 
the  Bibliographical  References  at  the  end ;  on  the  other 
hand,  much  new  information  is  given  here. 

In  the  zoological  system  the  walrus  belongs  to 
the  order  Pinnipedia  which  consists  of  the  three  fami- 
lies, Otariidae  (eared  seals),  Trichecidae  (walrus), 
and  Phocidae  (seals).  The  genus  Trichecus  (walrus) 
consists  of  two  species, — T.  rosmarus  and  T.  obesus. 
The  former  occurs  on  the  coast  of  Labrador  northward 
to  the  Arctic  Sea,  along  the  shores  of  Greenland,  and 
in  the  polar  areas  of  the  eastern  hemisphere  to  western 
Asia.  The  latter  inhabits  the  northwest  coast  of 
America,  the  Arctic  Sea  and  Bering  Strait,  as  well  as 
the  northeastern  coast  of  Asia.     The  most  striking 


38  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

characteristic  of  the  animal  is  formed  by  the  pair  of 
tusks  corresponding  to  the  canine  teeth  of  other  mam- 
mals; they  descend  almost  directly  downward  from 
the  upper  jaw,  sometimes  attaining  a  length  of  twenty 
inches  or  more  and  a  weight  of  from  four  to  six  pounds. 
The  tusks  do  not  form  a  solid  mass  throughout,  but 
are  hollow  about  two-thirds  of  their  length,  so  that 
large  objects  and  billiard-balls  cannot  be  carved  from 
them.  The  outer  layer  of  the  tooth  has  a  dark  colora- 
tion, and  is  not  smooth  as  in  elephants'  tusks,  but  is 
fluted  and  hard  as  glass.  The  tips  of  the  tusks  yield 
a  hard  and  solid  mass  which  is  evenly  yellowish  white, 
and  in  a  cross-section,  displays  speckled  designs.  The 
lateral  portions,  likewise  yellowish  white,  are  crossed 
by  fine  yellow  lines,  or  are  interspersed  with  large, 
yellow,  flamed  spots.  When  exposed  to  the  atmosphere 
or  to  moisture  for  a  long  time,  the  tusk  will  lose  its 
whiteness  and  assume  a  yellow  tobacco  color. 

The  walrus  was  formerly  styled  "sea-horse" 
(Latin  Equus  marinus),  its  tusks  "sea-horses'  teeth" 
(e.g.  John  Ray,  Synopsis  methodica  animalium  quad- 
rupedum,  p.  193,  London,  1693).  Likewise  such  de- 
scriptive terms  as  sea-ox,  sea-cow,  sea-elephant  were 
in  use.  In  earlier  literature  also  morse,  mors  (de- 
rived from  Russian  morzh,  a  word  of  unknown  origin, 
through  the  medium  of  French  morse)  appears  occa- 
sionally: thus  William  Baffin  ("Relation  of  his  Fourth 
Voyage  for  the  Discoverie  of  the  North-West  Passage, 
performed  in  1615")  speaks  of  "peeces  of  the  bone  or 
home  of  the  sea  unicorne,  and  divers  peeces  of  sea 
mors  teeth."  Jonas  Poole  (in  Purchas),  in  1610, 
writes  mohorses,  with  adaptation  to  horse. 

The  narwhal  (Monodon  monoceros)  belongs  in  the 
zoological  system  to  the  order  Cetaceae.  Our  word  is 
derived  from  Old  Norse  nahvalr,  Swedish-Danish 
narhval;  hvalr  or  hval  means  "whale,"  the  origin  of 
the  first  element  of  the  word  is  obscure.    The  animal 


Walrus  and  Narwhal  39 

frequents  the  icy  circumpolar  seas,  and  is  rarely  seen 
south  of  65  °  N.  latitude.  It  resembles  the  white  whale 
in  shape  and  in  the  lack  of  a  dorsal  fin.  Its  peculiar 
characteristic  lies  in  the  absence  of  all  teeth,  save  two 
in  the  upper  jaw,  which  are  arranged  horizontally  side 
by  side.  In  the  male,  usually  the  left  tooth  and  occa- 
sionally both  teeth  are  strongly  developed  into  spirally 
twisted,  straight  tusks  which  pass  through  the  upper 
lip  and  project  in  front  like  horns.  They  frequently 
reach  a  length  of  about  seven  feet;  that  is,  half,  and 
even  more,  that  of  the  entire  animal,  which  in  the  state 
of  maturity  may  attain  to  fifteen  feet.  Its  life-history 
is  but  little  explored,  and  the  biological  function  of  the 
tusk  is  conjectured  rather  than  accurately  ascertained ; 
it  is  supposed  to  serve  as  a  weapon  of  defence,  for 
breaking  ice  in  order  to  breathe,  and  for  killing  fish. 
The  ivory  yielded  by  the  tusk,  which  is  hollow  in  the 
interior,  possesses  extreme  density  and  hardness  and 
in  this  respect  surpasses  elephant  ivory;  it  is  of  a 
dazzling  whiteness,  which  does  not  pass  into  yellow, 
is  easily  wrought,  and  easily  receives  a  high  polish. 
Along  the  northern  shores  of  Siberia  are  also  accumu- 
lated fossil  tusks  of  the  narwhal  together  with  enor- 
mous masses  of  mammoth  and  rhinoceros  bones. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  a  narwhal  was  observed 
cast  adrift  at  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  and  another  at 
the  estuary  of  the  Weser.  Caxton,  in  his  Chronology 
of  England,  has  an  entry  under  the  year  1482,  "This 
yere  were  take  four  grete  fisshes  between  Erethe  and 
London,  that  one  was  callyd  mors  marine."  This  is 
the  earliest  instance  of  the  occurrence  of  the  term 
morse  for  the  walrus  in  English  literature. 

The  first  acquaintance  of  England  with  the  wal- 
rus, however,  was  much  earlier  and  dates  from  the 
latter  part  of  the  ninth  century,  and  is  connected  with 
the  daring  exploits  of  the  Norseman  Ohthere  from 
Helgeland   in   Norway,   who   in   a.d.    890   undertook 


40  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

several  voyages,  rounded  the  North  Cape,  and 
reached  the  Kola  Peninsula.  He  reported  on  this  en- 
terprise to  King  Alfred  the  Great  of  England  (848- 
901),  who  embodied  Ohthere's  narrative  in  his  Anglo- 
Saxon  translation  of  Paulus  Orosius'  History  of  the 
World.  The  passage  with  reference  to  the  walrus 
runs  thus :  "The  principall  purpose  of  his  travelle 
this  way,  was  to  encrease  the  knowledge  and  discoverie 
of  these  coasts  and  countreyes,  for  the  more  com- 
moditie  of  fishing  of  horse-whales,  which  have  in  their 
teeth  bones  of  great  price  and  excellencie :  whereof  he 
brought  some  at  his  return  unto  the  king.  Their 
skinnes  are  also  very  good  to  make  cables  for  shippes, 
and  so  used.  This  kind  of  whale  is  much  lesse  in 
quantitie  then  other  kindes,  having  not  in  length  above 
seven  elles.  And  as  for  the  common  kind  of  whales, 
the  place  of  most  and  best  hunting  of  them  is  in  his 
owne  countrey.  Whereof  some  be  48  elles  of  length, 
and  some  50,  of  which  sort  he  affirmed  that  he  himselfe 
was  one  of  the  sixe  which  in  the  space  of  3  dayes 
killed  threescore.  Their  principall  wealth  consisteth 
in  the  tribute  which  the  Fynnes  pay  them,  which  is  all 
in  skinnes  of  wild  beasts,  feathers  of  birds,  whale 
bones,  and  cables,  and  tacklings  for  shippes  made  of 
whales  or  Seales  skinnes.  The  richest  pay  ordinarily 
15  cases  of  Marternes,  5  Rane  Deere  skinnes,  and  one 
Beare,  ten  bushels  of  feathers,  a  wat  of  a  Beares 
skinne,  two  cables  threescore  elles  long  apiece,  the  one 
made  of  Whales  skin,  the  other  of  Seales." 

The  Anglo-Saxon  word  used  in  this  text  is  hors- 
hwael,  from  Old  Norse  hrosshvalr  ("a  kind  of  whale") 
and  rosmhvalr  ("walrus"). 

In  the  sixteenth  century  when  walrus  ivory 
reached  England  from  North  America,  it  was  paid  for 
at  double  the  rate  of  elephant  ivory.  Thomas  James 
of  Bristol,  who  visited  the  island  of  Ramea  near  New- 
foundland in  1591  and  who  gives  a  description  of  the 


Walrus  Tusks  in  England  41 

walrus  he  encountered  there,  writes  that  its  teeth  were 
sold  in  England  to  the  comb  and  knife-makers  at  eight 
groats  and  three  shillings  the  pound  weight,  whereas 
the  best  ivory  was  sold  for  half  the  money;  the  grain 
of  the  bone,  he  remarks,  is  somewhat  more  yellow  than 
the  ivory.  He  also  tells  a  curious  story  about  his 
friend  Alexander  Woodson  of  Bristol,  an  excellent 
mathematician  and  skilful  physician,  who  showed  him 
one  of  these  beasts'  teeth  brought  from  Ramea  and 
half  a  yard  long,  and  who  assured  him  that  he  had 
made  trial  of  it  in  ministering  medicine  to  his  pa- 
tients, and  had  found  it  as  sovereign  against  poison 
as  any  unicorn's  horn.  Gerat  de  Veer  ("The  First 
Navigation  of  William  Barents,  alias  Bernards  into  the 
North  Seas,"  1594)  speaks  of  "sea-horses  being  a  kind 
of  fish  that  keepeth  in  the  s*ea,  having  very  great  teeth, 
which  at  this  day  are  used  instead  of  ivory  or  ele- 
phants teeth."  Martin  Frobisher  (Voyage  in  1577) 
relates,  "They  found  a  great  dead  fish,  round  like  a 
porpoise,  twelve  feet  long,  having  a  horn  five  feet  ten 
inches  long,  growing  out  of  the  snout,  wreathed,  and 
straight  like  a  wax  taper ;  and  might  be  thought  to  be 
a  sea-unicorn:  the  top  of  it  was  broken.  It  was  re- 
served as  a  jewel  by  Queen  Elizabeth's  commandment 
in  her  wardrobe  of  robes,  and  is  still  at  Windsor  to 
be  seen." 

From  the  ninth  century  onward  walrus  tusks 
formed  an  important  article  of  trade  in  the  north- 
eastern part  of  Europe,  and  this  was  the  case  long 
before  the  discovery  of  Greenland.  In  Russian  his- 
tory they  are  known  as  "fish-teeth,"  as  in  bygone  days 
the  walrus  was  classified  among  fish  everywhere  in 
Europe  and  Asia.  In  old  Russian  tales  are  mentioned 
precious  chairs  of  fish-teeth,  and  these  fish-teeth  ap- 
pear as  highly  priced  objects.  At  Novgorod  they  were 
traded  like  marten  and  squirrel  skins  and  accepted  as 
monetary  values.     In  1159  the  grand-duke  Rostislav 


42  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

presented  to  the  prince  Svatoslav  Olgovich  sables,  er- 
mines, black  foxes,  polar  foxes,  white  bears,  and  fish- 
teeth.  During  the  period  of  Mongol  and  Tartar  sway 
over  Russia  frequent  demands  for  this  product  were 
made  from  Asia,  and  in  1476  Ivan  Vasilyevich  re- 
ceived a  fish-tooth  as  a  gift  from  a  citizen  of  Novgorod. 

S.  von  Herberstein,  who,  in  1549,  published  his 
work  "Rerum  Moscoviticarum  Commentarii,"  a  pri- 
mary source  for  the  history  of  Russia,  and  who  was 
ambassador  to  the  Grand  Prince  Vasily  Ivanovich  in 
the  years  1517  and  1526,  gives  the  following  account: 
"The  articles  of  merchandise  which  are  exported  from 
Russia  into  Lithuania  and  Turkey,  are  leather,  skins, 
and  the  long  white  teeth  of'  animals  which  they  call 
mors,  and  which  inhabit  the  northern  ocean,  out  of 
which  the  Turks  are  accustomed  very  skilfully  to  make 
the  handles  of  daggers;  our  people  think  they  are  the 
teeth  of  fish,  and  call  them  so.  The  ocean  which  lies 
about  the  mouths  of  the  river  Petchora,  to  the  right 
of  the  mouths  of  the  Dwina,  is  said  to  contain  animals 
of  great  size.  Amongst  others,  there  is  one  animal  of 
the  size  of  an  ox,  which  the  people  of  the  country  call 
mors.  It  has  short  feet,  like  those  of  a  beaver ;  a  chest 
rather  broad  and  deep  compared  to  the  rest  of  its 
body;  and  two  tusks  in  the  upper  jaw  protruding  to 
a  considerable  length.  The  hunters  pursue  these  ani- 
mals only  for  the  tusks,  of  which  the  Russians,  the 
Tartars,  and  especially  the  Turks  skilfully  make 
handles  for  their  swords  and  daggers,  rather  for  orna- 
ment than  for  inflicting  a  heavier  blow,  as  has  been 
incorrectly  stated.  These  tusks  are  sold  by  weight, 
and  are  described  as  fishes'  teeth."  Von  Herberstein, 
accordingly,  identifies  the  commercial  label  "fish- 
teeth"  with  the  zoological  term  "morse";  that  is,  the 
walrus. 

Richard  Chancelour,  in  "The  Book  of  the  Great 
and  Mighty  Emperor  of  Russia"  (1553),  writes,  "To 


Walrus  Ivory  in  Russia  43 

the  north  parte  of  that  countrey  are  the  places  where 
they  have  their  furres,  as  sables,  marterns,  greese 
bevers,  foxes  white,  blacke,  and  redde,  minkes,  ermines, 
miniver,  and  harts.  There  are  also  a  fishes  teeth, 
which  fish  is  called  a  morsse.  The  takers  thereof  dwell 
in  a  place  called  Postessora,  which  bring  them  upon 
hartes  [reindeer]  to  Lampas  to  sell,  and  from  Lampas 
carie  them  to  a  place  called  Colmogro,  where  the  hie 
market  is  holden  on  Saint  Nicholas  day." 

Farther  on,  he  gives  somewhat  more  detailed  in- 
formation on  the  same  subject,  as  follows: — 

"The  north  parts  of  Russia  yeelde  very  rare  and 
precious  skinnes:  and  amongst  the  rest,  those  princi- 
pally, which  we  call  sables,  worne  about  the  neckes  of 
our  noble  women  and  ladies:  it  hath  also  martins 
skinnes,  white,  blacke,  and  red  foxe  skinnes,  skinnes 
of  hares,  and  ermyns,  and  others,  which  they  call  and 
terme  barbarously,  as  bevers,  minxes,  and  minivers. 
The  sea  adjoyning,  breedes  a  certaine  beast,  which 
they  call  the  Mors,  which  seeketh  his  foode  upon  the 
rockes,  climing  up  with  the  helpe  of  his  teeth.  The 
Russes  use  to  take  them,  for  the  great  vertue  that  is 
in  their  teeth,  whereof  they  make  as  great  accompt, 
as  we  doe  of  the  elephants  tooth.  These  commodities 
they  carry  upon  deeres  backes  [reindeer]  to  the  towne 
of  Lampas:  and  from  thence  to  Colmagro,  and  there 
in  the  winter  time,  are  kept  great  faires  for  the  sale 
of  them.  This  citie  of  Colmagro,  serves  all  the 
countrey  about  it  with  salt,  and  salt  fish.  The  Rus- 
sians also  of  the  north  parts,  send  thither  oyle,  which 
they  call  traine,  which  they  make  in  a  river  called 
Una,  although  it  be  also  made  elsewhere:  and  here 
they  use  to  boile  the  water  of  the  sea,  whereof  they 
make  very  great  store  of  salt." 

Anthony  Jenkinson,  who  travelled  in  Russia  and 
Turkestan  from  1557  to  1571,  was  well  familiar  with 
the  life  of  the  Russians  and  their  use  of  walrus  ivory. 


44  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

"When  he  rideth  on  horse  backe  to  the  warres,  or  any 
iourney,"  he  writes,  "he  hath  a  sword  of  the  Turkish 
fashion,  and  his  bowe  and  arrowes  of  the  same  man- 
ner. In  the  towne  he  weareth  no  weapon,  but  onely 
two  or  three  paire  of  knives  having  the  hafts  of  the 
tooth  of  a  fishe,  called  the  Morse"  (E.  D.  Morgan, 
Early  Voyages  and  Travels  to  Russia  and  Persia  by 
A.  Jenkinson,  p.  40). 

On  his  return  from  Persia  in  the  autumn  of  1564, 
Jenkinson's  efforts  were  bent  toward  organizing  a 
voyage  to  Cathay  by  the  northeast  passage;  and  in 
pursuance  of  this  plan  he  addressed  on  the  25th  of 
September,  1565,  to  the  Queen  of  England  a  "petition 
relating  to  the  north-east  passage."  In  this  memorable 
document  he  presents  the  following  argument  in  which 
walrus  teeth  play  a  prominent  part  in  favor  of  his 
contention  that  Cathay  could  be  reached  in  that  man- 
ner: "At  my  beinge  in  Scythia  and  Bactria,  I  divers 
tymes  talked  and  conferred  with  dyvers  Cathayens 
[Chinese]  who  wer  there  at  that  present  in  trade  of 
merchanndyse  towchinge  the  comodyties  of  their  coun- 
trey,  and  how  the  seas  aborded  unto  them,  I  learned 
of  them  that  the  said  seas  had  theire  course  to  certen 
northerly  regions  with  whom  they  had  traphyque  by 
seas.  Also  havinge  conferrence  with  th'inhabitantes 
of  Hugarye  [Ugria]  and  other  people  of  Sameydes 
[Samoyeds]  and  Colmackes  whose  countreys  lye  very 
farr  northerly  (and  nere  whereunto  I  gesse  the  said 
passage  to  be)  whiche  people  sayle  alonge  the  saide 
coastes  fysshinge  after  the  greate  fyshe  callyed  the 
Morse  for  the  benefyte  of  his  teathe.  Of  whome  I  have 
learned  that  beyonde  them  the  sayde  lande  and  coastes 
trenche  and  tende  to  the  east  and  to  the  southwarde, 
and  that  the  corrauntes  and  tydes  runne  east  south- 
easte  and  west  northweste  very  vehemently,  whiche 
manifestly  arguethe  a  passage.  Further  this  laste 
yere  at  my  beinge  in  th'emperoure  of  Muscovia  his 


Walrus  Ivory  in  Siberia  45 

Coorte,  yt  chaunced  that  there  cam  thyther  certen  of 
th'inhabitantes  of  the  foresaid  countryes  to  present 
unto  the  said  prince  a  certen  straunge  hed  with  a  home 
therein,  whiche  they  had  fownde  in  the  Ilonde  of 
Vagatts  [Vaigats,  separated  from  the  Siberian  main- 
land by  Yugor  SRar,  called  Pet  Straits],  whiche  is 
not  farre  from  the  river  of  Obbe  and  the  mayne  land 
of  Hugarye.  And  for  that  th'emperoure  neyther  any 
of  his  people  knewe  what  yt  was  for  the  straungenes 
thereof  he  commaunded  that  soche  straungers  as  wer 
though te  to  have  any  judgement  therin  shold  see  the 
same,  and  be  asked  there  opynion  what  they  thoughte 
it  to  be.  Amounge  whome  yt  was  my  chaunce  to  be. 
And  so  was  it  fownde,  by  the  reporte  of  them,  that 
before  had  seane  the  lyke,  to  be  the  hedd  and  home 
of  an  Unycorne,  which  is  in  no  smalle  pryce  and 
estymacion  with  the  saide  prynce.  Then  I  imagynyd 
with  my  self  from  whence  the  said  hedd  sholde  come, 
and  knowinge  that  unycornes  are  bredde  in  the  landes 
of  Cathaye,  Chynaye  and  other  the  Orientall  Regions, 
fel  into  consideration  that  the  same  hedd  was  broughte 
thyther  by  the  course  of  the  sea,  and  that  theire  muste 
of  necessytie  be  a  passage  owt  of  the  sayde  Orientall 
Occean  into  our  Septentrionall  §eas,  for  how  elles 
cowlde  that  hedd  have  come  to  that  Ilonde  of  Vagatts." 

This  argument  is  alluded  to  by  Martin  Frobisher 
in  his  First  Voyage  of  1576,  "That  voyage  was  then 
taken  in  hand,  of  the  valiant  knight,  with  pretence  to 
have  gone  eastward  to  the  rich  countrey  of  Cataya, 
and  was  grounded  briefely  upon  these  reasons.  First, 
bicause  there  was  a  unicornes  home  found  upon  the 
coast  of  Tartar ia  by  the  river  Obij,  which  (said  he) 
was  like  by  no  other  ways  to  come  thither,  but  from 
India  or  Cataya,  where  the  saide  unicornes  are  only 
found,  and  that  by  some  sea  bringing  it  thither"  (R. 
Collinson,  The  Three  Voyages  of  Martin  Frobisher  in 


46  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

Search  of  a  Passage  to   Cathaia  and  India  by  the 
North-West,  1576-78,  p.  39). 

Anthony  Marsh,  a  factor  for  the  Moscovie  Com- 
pany of  England,  wrote  in  his  Notes  concerning  the 
Discovery  of  the  River  of  Ob  in  1584,  "Not  farre  dis- 
tant from  the  maine,  at  the  mouth  of  Ob,  there  is  an 
island,  whereon  resort  many  wilde  beasts,  as  white 
beares,  and  the  morses,  and  such  like.  And  the 
Samoeds  tell  us,  that  in  the  winter  season,  they  often- 
times finde  there  Morses  teeth." 

Giles  Fletcher,  who,  in  1588,  was  sent  as  ambas- 
sador of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Theodor,  emperor  of 
Russia,  has  the  following  report  in  his  "The  Russe 
Common  Wealth,"  also  entitled  "The  Native  Commodi- 
ties of  the  Contrey:" — 

"Besides  these  (which  are  all  good  and  substan- 
tiall  commodities)  they  have  divers  other  of  smaller 
accompt,  that  are  naturall  and  proper  to  that  coun- 
trey:  as  the  fish  tooth  (which  they  call  Ribazuba) 
which  is  used  among  themselves,  and  the  Persians  and 
Bougharians  that  fetch  it  from  thence  for  beads, 
knives,  and  sword  hafts  of  noblemen  and  gentlemen, 
and  for  divers  other  uses.  Some  use  the  powder  of  it 
against  poison,  as  \he  unicornes  home.  The  fish  that 
weareth  it  is  called  a  Morse,  and  is  caught  about 
Pechora.  These  fish  teeth  some  of  them  are  almost 
two  foote  of  length,  and  weigh  eleven  or  twelve  pound 
apiece." 

R.  Stevens  of  Harwich  ("Voyage  to  Cherry  Island 
in  1608."  This  island,  named  in  honor  of  Sir  Francis 
Cherry,  lies  south  of  Spitsbergen)  writes,  "The  ninth 
day  we  got  one  tierce  of  morses'  teeth,  besides  four 
hundred  other  teeth.  We  brought  a  young  living 
morse  to  court,  where  King  James  and  many  honour- 
able personages  beheld  it  with  admiration.  It  soon 
died.  It  was  of  a  strange  docility,  and  very  apt  to  be 
taught."    In  1610  the  Russia  Company  took  possession 


Russian  and  English  Trade  in  Walrus  Ivory        47 

of  Cherry  Island,  and  that  year  they  killed  a  thousand 
morses  and  made  fifty  tons  of  oil  (John  Harris,  Voy- 
ages and  Travels,  1764,  Vol.  II,  p.  389). 

In  1652,  Deshneff  sailed  down  the  Anadyr  as  far 
as  its  mouth,  and  observed  on  the  north  side  a  sand 
bank,  which  stretched  a  considerable  way  into  the  sea. 
A  sand  bank  of  this  kind  is  called  in  Siberia  korga. 
Great  numbers  of  sea-horses  were  found  to  resort  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Anadyr.  Deshneff  collected  several 
of  their  teeth,  and  thought  himself  amply  compensated 
by  this  acquisition  for  the  trouble  of  his  expedition. 
Another  expedition  was  made  in  1654  to  the  Korga, 
for  the  purpose  of  collecting  sea-horse  teeth.  A  Cos- 
sack, named  Yusko  Soliverstoff,  was  one  of  the  party. 
This  person  was  sent  from  Yakutsk  to  collect  sea-horse 
teeth  for  the  benefit  of  the  crown  (W.  Coxe,  Account 
of  the  Russian  Discoveries  between  Asia  and  America, 
pp.  318,  319,  London,  1780). 

An  important  contribution  to  the  subject  is  fur- 
nished by  the  Jesuit  father  Avril,  who  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century  gathered  the  following 
information  from  the  Russians :  "Besides  furs  of  all 
sorts,  which  they  fetch  from  all  quarters,  they  have 
discovered  a  sort  of  ivory,  which  is  whiter  and 
smoother  than  that  which  comes  from  the  Indies.  Not 
that  they  have  any  elephants  that  furnish  them  with 
this  commodity  (for  the  northern  countries  are  too 
cold  for  those  sort  of  creatures  that  naturally  love 
heat),  but  other  amphibious  animals,  which  they  call 
by  the  name  of  Behemot,  which  are  usually  found  in 
the  River  Lena,  or  upon  the  shores  of  the  Tartarian 
Sea.  Several  teeth  of  this  monster  were  shewn  us  at 
Moskow,  which  were  ten  inches  long,  and  two  at  the 
diameter  at  the  root:  nor  are  the  elephant's  teeth 
comparable  to  them,  either  for  beauty  or  whiteness, 
besides  that  they  have  a  peculiar  property  to  stanch 
blood,  being  carried  about  a  person  subject  to  bleeding. 


48  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

The  Persians  and  Turks  who  buy  them  up  put  a  high 
value  upon  them,  and  prefer  a  scimitar  or  a  dagger 
haft  of  this  precious  ivory  before  a  handle  of  massy 
gold  or  silver.  But  certainly  nobody  better  under- 
stands the  price  of  this  ivory  than  they  who  first 
brought  it  into  request ;  considering  how  they  venture 
their  lives  in  attacking  the  creature  that  produces  it, 
which  is  as  big  and  as  dangerous  as  a  crocodile." 
Farther  on,  Avril  quotes  a  story  told  him  by  the  Voye- 
voda  of  Smolensk  about  an  island  at  the  mouth  of  the 
great  River  Kawoina,  beyond  the  Obi,  that  discharges 
itself  into  the  Frozen  Sea.  "This  island  is  spacious 
and  very  well  peopled,  and  is  no  less  considerable  for 
hunting  the  Behemot,  an  amphibious  animal,  whose 
teeth  are  in  great  esteem.  The  inhabitants  go  fre- 
quently upon  the  side  of  the  Frozen  Sea  to  hunt  this 
monster;  and  because  it  requires  great  labor  and  as- 
siduity, they  carry  their  families  usually  along  with 
them."  Avril,  accordingly,  confirms  the  fact  that  the 
Russians  hunted  the  walrus  along  the  shores  of  the 
Arctic  Sea,  and  that  the  animal's  tusks  were  conveyed 
to  Moscow  and  traded  to  the  Persians  and  Turks. 

The  Arabs,  as  we  learn  from  al-Beruni  (a.d.  973- 
1048)  in  a  treatise  on  precious  stones  written  by  him, 
prized  walrus  ivory  highly  and  called  it  khutu.  They 
received  it  from  the  Bulgars,  who  then  resided  on  the 
Volga  and  who  brought  from  the  northern  sea  "teeth 
of  a  fish  over  a  cubit  long,"  which  were  wrought  into 
knife-hilts.  The  Arabs  traded  them  even  to  Mekka. 
The  Egyptians  craved  them  and  purchased  them  at  a 
price  equal  to  two  hundred  times  their  value.  Maqdisi 
or  Muqaddasi  (about  A.D.  985)  mentions  fish-teeth 
among  the  exports  from  Bulgar  into  Kharizm  (Khiva) . 
The  Jesuit  Avril,  as  quoted  above,  observes  that  the 
Persians  and  Turks  bought  up  walrus  teeth  at  a  high 
value  and  preferred  a  scimitar  or  a  dagger  haft  of 
this  precious  ivory  to  a  handle  of  massive  gold  or 


Walrus  Ivory  Among  Arabs  and  Persians  49 

silver.  The  Persians  adopted  both  the  foreign  term 
khutu  and  the  designation  "fish-tooth"  (danddn  mdhi, 
also  shir  mdhi,  "lion-fish"),  and  turned  combs  and 
knife-hilts  out  of  it,  which  were  transmitted  to  India. 
In  the  second  volume  of  his  Memoirs,  the  emperor  Ja- 
hangir  tells  how  delighted  he  was  when  he  received 
from  Persia  a  dagger  whose  hilt  was  made  of  a  fish- 
tooth.  He  was  so  much  impressed  by  this  hilt  that  he 
despatched  skilful  men  to  search  for  other  specimens 
in  Persia  and  Transoxania.  Their  instructions  were 
to  bring  fish-teeth  from  anywhere,  and  from  any  per- 
son, and  at  any  cost.  A  little  later  a  fine  specimen 
was  picked  up  in  the  bazar  of  his  own  capital  of  Agra, 
and  was  brought  to  him  by  his  son,  Shah  Jahan. 
Jahangir  had  the  tooth  made  into  dagger-hilts,  and 
gave  one  of  the  craftsmen  an  elephant  as  a  reward, 
and  bestowed  on  the  other  increase  of  pay  and  a 
jewelled  bracelet.  The  idea  that  this  ivory  was  be- 
lieved to  be  an  antidote  to  poison,  and  also  to  reduce 
swellings,  added  greatly  to  its  value.  From  a  state- 
ment in  the  history  of  Akbar  the  Great,  known  as  the 
Akbarnama,  it  appears  that  about  1569  a  Raja  in  Mala- 
bar, who  probably  was  the  Raja  of  Cochin,  sent  Akbar 
a  knife  which  had  the  property  of  reducing  or  remov- 
ing swellings,  and  that  Akbar  told  his  secretary  that 
it  had  been  successfully  applied  in  more  than  two  hun- 
dred cases.  Probably  this  knife  was  made,  wholly  or 
in  part,  of  walrus  ivory,  which  could  easily  have  been 
brought  to  Cochin  by  sea. 

At  present  India  still  has  a  kind  of  ivory  known  as 
"fish-tooth"  (mahlika-dant) .  This  is  always  of  a  dirty 
(oily)  yellow  color  with  the  texture  looking  as  if 
crystallized  into  patches,  which  is  characteristic  of  the 
interior  of  the  walrus  tusk.  The  significance  of  being 
called  in  every  language  and  dialect  of  India  "fish- 
tooth"  at  once  suggests  a  common  and,  most  probably, 
foreign  origin  for  the  material.    An  inquiry  made  by 


50  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

George  Watt  disclosed  the  fact  that  it  was  more  highly 
valued  for  sword  and  dagger  hafts  and  more  exten- 
sively used  for  these  purposes  than  is  ivory.  It  is  put 
through  an  elaborate  and  protracted  process  of  curing 
before  being  worked  up.  The  crude  fish-tooth  is 
wrapped  up  in  a  certain  mixture  and  retained  in  that 
condition  for  various  periods,  the  finer  samples  for 
as  long  as  fifty  years.  The  advantages  are  its  greater 
strength,  finer  and  smoother  surface,  and  greater  re- 
sistance (less  liability  to  slip  in  the  hand)  than  is  the 
case  with  ivory.  According  to  Watt,  the  fish-tooth  of 
Indian  trade  is  mainly,  if  not  entirely,  the  so-called 
fossil  ivory  of  Siberia — the  ivory  of  the  mammoth; 
but  he  thinks  it  equally  possible  that  a  fair  amount 
of  walrus  ivory  finds  its  way  into  India  by  passing, 
like  the  Siberian  ivory,  over  land  routes  to  India.  And 
from  the  antiquity  of  some  of  the  swords,  found  in 
the  armories  of  the  princes  of  India  with  "fish-tooth" 
hafts,  it  would  seem  possible  that  there  has  existed 
for  centuries  a  traffic  in  carrying  this  material  to 
India. 

A  Turkish  work  on  mineralogy,  written  in  a.d. 
1511-12  by  Ibn  Muhammad  al  Gaffari,  contains  the 
following  account :  "On  the  Khutu  Tooth.  The  khutu 
is  an  animal  like  an  ox  which  occurs  among  the  Berber 
and  is  found  also  in  Turkestan.  A  gem  is  obtained 
from  it;  some  say  it  is  its  tooth,  others,  it  is  its  horn. 
The  color  is  yellow,  and  the  yellow  inclines  toward  red, 
and  designs  are  displayed  in  it  as  in  damaskeening. 
When  the  khutu  is  young,  its  tooth  is  good,  fresh,  and 
firm;  when  it  has  grown  older,  its  tooth  also  is  dark- 
colored  and  soft.  The  padishahs  purchase  it  at  a  high 
rate.  Likewise  in  China,  in  the  Magrib,  and  in  other 
countries  it  is  known  and  famous.  It  is  told  that  a 
merchant  from  Egypt  brought  to  Mekka  a  piece  and 
a  half  of  this  tooth  and  sold  it  on  the  market  of  Mina 
for  a  thousand  gold  pieces.    Poison  has  no  effect  upon 


Walrus  Ivory  in  Turkey  51 

one  who  carries  this  tooth  with  him,  and  poison  placed 
near  it  will  cause  it  to  exude.  For  this  reason  it  is 
highly  esteemed." 

Pierre  Belon  (1518-64),  a  prominent  French 
traveller  and  naturalist,  wrote  in  1553,  "The  Turks 
have  this  custom  in  common  with  the  Greeks  that  they 
carry  their  knives  suspended  from  their  belts.  These 
knives  are  commonly  made  in  Hungary  with  very  long 
handles;  but  when  the  merchants  of  Turkey  buy  them, 
they  turn  them  over  to  artisans  to  add  to  them  a  butt 
which  is  commonly  made  of  Rohart  tooth  [walrus 
tooth].  There  are  two  sorts:  one  is  straight  white 
and  compact,  resembling  the  tooth  of  the  unicorn 
[narwhal],  and  is  so  hard  that  steel  will  hardly  affect 
it  unless  it  be  well  tempered.  The  other  tooth  of 
Rohart  is  curved  like  that  of  a  boar:  we  might  have 
believed  that  it  was  the  tooth  of  a  hippopotamus,  had 
we  not  observed  this  animal  alive  which  had  no  such 
teeth."  The  French  word  rohart  (also  rohar,  rohal) 
refers  to  the  walrus,  and  is  connected  with  Old  Norse 
horshvalr  (Norwegian  rohal,  roshal).  In  the  Latin 
translation  of  Belon's  work  prepared  by  the  botanist 
C.  Clusius  (1589)  the  name  "morse"  for  the  animal 
has  been  added. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Company  of  the  Greenland  Merchants  of  England 
shipped  to  Constantinople  a  "horn,"  as  it  was  then 
called,  found  by  an  English  sea-captain  in  1611  in  the 
ground  on  the  coast  of  Greenland,  and  the  sum  of 
two  thousand  pounds  sterling  was  offered  for  it.  The 
Company,  however,  in  the  hope  of  a  better  price,  de- 
clined to  sell  and  sent  it  on  into  Muscovy,  where  ap- 
proximately the  same  price  was  bidden.  Hence  the 
tooth  was  transported  back  into  Turkey,  where  a  much 
smaller  sum  was  then  proffered  than  before.  The 
Company  therefore  decided  that  the  tooth  would  sell 
more  easily  in  pieces  than  entire,  and  had  it  broken  up. 


62  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

The  single  pieces  were  finally  disposed  of  in  different 
places,  but  the  proceeds  amounted  to  only  twelve  hun- 
dred pounds  sterling  (account  of  Pietro  della  Valle  in 
1623;  the  complete  text  is  given  in  "Sino-Iranica," 
p.  567). 

Quite  independently  of  Europe,  the  Chinese  re- 
ceived walrus  ivory  from  the  northeast  of  Asia  through 
the  medium  of  numerous  tribes  settled  in  this  region. 
Beyond  the  boundaries  of  Korea,  in  the  east  conter- 
minous with  the  ocean,  the  northern  limit  being  un- 
known, there  was  from  remote  ages  the  habitat  of 
the  Su-shen,  who  have  greatly  stirred  the  imagination 
of  Chinese  and  Japanese  chroniclers,  and  who  are  fre- 
quently mentioned  in  the  Chinese  Annals.  They  were 
the  Vikings  of  the  East,  raiding  on  several  occasions 
the  coasts  of  northern  Japan  and  engaging  in  many  a 
sea-battle  with  the  Japanese  in  the  seventh  century. 
For  a  thousand  years  earlier,  the  Chinese  were  ac- 
quainted with  this  nation  and  its  peculiar  culture. 
They  used  flint  arrowheads,  usually  poisoned,  which 
were  preserved  as  curiosities  in  the  royal  treasury  of 
China.  They  lived  through  a  stone  age  for  at  least 
fifteen  hundred  years  down  to  the  middle  ages  when 
they  were  merged  in  the  flood  of  roaming  Tungusian 
tribes.  They  availed  themselves  of  stone  axes  which 
played  a  role  in  their  religious  worship,  and  of  hide 
and  bone  armor  for  defence.  In  a.d.  262  they  sent  to 
China  a  tribute  consisting  of  thirty  bows,  wooden  ar- 
rows, three  hundred  stone  crossbows,  twenty  suits  of 
armor  made  of  leather,  bone,  and  iron,  respectively, 
as  well  as  a  hundred  sable-skins.  This  enumeration 
of  objects  brings  us  into  close  contact  with  the  state 
of  culture  that  partially  still  prevails  in  the  northern 
area  of  the  Pacific,  and  the  main  representatives  of 
which  at  the  present  time  are  the  Koryak,  the  Chukchi, 
and  the  Eskimo.  In  this  area  still  occurs  that  peculiar 
type  of  bone  plate  armor  composed  of  rows  of  over- 


Walrus  Ivory  in  China  63 

lapping  ivory  plates,  and  the  plates  in  this  type  of 
armor  are  commonly  carved  from  walrus  ivory,  pos- 
sessing as  it  does  a  higher  degree  of  elasticity  than 
any  ordinary  kind  of  bone.  The  Su-shen,  accordingly, 
appear  to  have  been  in  possession  of  walrus  ivory,  at 
least  prior  to  A.D.  262,  and  probably  wrought  it  them- 
selves into  plates  for  armor. 

A  product  of  the  nature  of  walrus  ivory  first  be- 
came known  in  China  during  the  reign  of  the  T'ang 
dynasty  (a.d.  618-906)  under  the  name  ku-tu  kio 
("horn  of  the  ku-tu,"  the  latter  being  a  non-Chinese 
word  derived  from  some  native  tribe  of  northeastern 
Asia) .  Ku-tu  is  given  in  the  T'ang  Annals  among  the 
taxes  sent  from  Ying-chou  in  Liao-tung,  and  this  was 
the  domicile  of  the  Kitan  and  other  Tungusian  tribes. 
It  is  also  mentioned  as  a  product  of  the  Mo-ho, 
likewise  a  Tungusian  tribe,  whose  country  abounded 
in  sables,  white  hares,  and  white  falcons.  The  Mo-ho 
were  settled  to  the  north  of  Korea  and  extended  east 
of  the  Sungari  River  as  far  as  the  ocean.  They  lived 
in  close  proximity  and  intercourse  with  the  Liu-kwei, 
a  people  briefly  described  in  the  Annals  of  the  T'ang 
Dynasty.  The  geographical  position  of  the  country 
of  the  Liu-kwei  is  clearly  enough  defined  to  lead  us  to 
Kamchatka.  The  culture  of  this  people,  as  character- 
ized by  the  Chinese,  plainly  reveals  a  type  that  is  still 
found  in  the  North-Pacific  area.  These  cultural  traits 
are,  absence  of  agriculture,  economy  essentially  based 
on  the  maintenance  of  numerous  dogs,  subterranean 
habitations,  utilization  of  furs  as  winter  costume,  em- 
ployment of  fish-skins  as  clothing  in  the  summer,  and 
transportation  on  snow-shoes.  The  Mo-ho  entertained 
a  lucrative  commerce  with  the  Liu-kwei  by  way  of  the 
sea,  the  voyage  lasting  fifteen  days;  and  when  the 
latter  in  a.d.  640  sent  a  mission  to  China,  their  envoys 
travelled  across  the  Mo-ho  country.  One  of  the  three 
interpreters  with  whom  they  arrived  at  the  Chinese 


54  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

Court  appears  to  have  been  a  Mo-ho,  and  the  extract 
in  the  Annals  is  doubtless  based  upon  a  report  made 
by  the  Mo-ho.  The  latter,  accordingly,  were  in  inti- 
mate contact  with  a  people  that  had  the  walrus  and 
its  product  within  easy  reach;  and  from  the  descrip- 
tions of  Steller  and  Krasheninnikov,  which  represent 
the  principal  sources  for  our  knowledge  of  the  ancient 
Kamchadal  or  Itelmen  who  are  now  almost  extinct, 
we  know  surely  enough  that  these  tribes  hunted  the 
walrus  and  utilized  its  ivory  for  industrial  work. 

Hung  Hao  (a.d.  1090-1155)  was  sent  as  an  am- 
bassador of  the  Sung  to  the  court  of  the  Kin  dynasty 
which  belonged  to  the  Jurchi  or  Niiichi,  a  tribe  of 
Tungusian  origin.  He  remained  there  for  fifteen  years 
(1129-43),  and  in  his  memoirs  (Sung  mo  ki  wen)  has 
this  note:  "The  ku-tu  horn  is  not  very  large.  It  is 
veined  like  ivory,  and  is  yellow  in  color.  It  is  made 
into  sword-hilts,  and  is  a  priceless  jewel."  In  the 
History  of  the  Liao  or  Kitan  Dynasty  (Liao  shi,  chap. 
116),  which  ruled  from  a.d.  907  to  1125,  the  word 
ku-tu-si  is  defined  as  "the  horn  of  a  thousand  years' 
old  snake,"  the"  word  tu-na-si  being  added  as  a  syno- 
nym. These  evidently  are  words  belonging  to  the  na- 
tive language  of  the  Kitan,  although  the  Kitan  on  their 
part  may  have  derived  them  from  peoples  living 
farther  to  the  north.  In  the  Annals  of  the  Kin  Dy- 
nasty (Kin  shi,  chap.  64)  are  mentioned  daggers  with 
hilt  of  ku-tu-si  of  the  ancient  Liao.  Hung  Hao  also 
wrote  in  1143  or  shortly  afterwards,  "The  Kitan  hold 
the  ku-tu-si  in  esteem.  The  horn  is  not  large,  but  it 
is  so  rare  that  among  numerous  pieces  of  rhinoceros- 
horn  there  is  not  a  single  ku-tu-si.  Unlike  rhinoceros- 
horn,  the  latter  has  never  been  wrought  into  girdles. 
It  has  designs  like  those  in  elephant  ivory,  and  is  yel- 
low in  color.  Only  knife-hilts  are  made  from  it,  and 
these  are  considered  as  priceless.  The  emperor  T'ien 
Tsu  (reigned  a.d.  1101-19,  died  in  1125)  had  a  girdle- 


Walrus  Ivory  in  China  55 

pendant  (t'u-hu)  made  from  this  substance."  This 
was  an  exceptional  case,  for  the  girdles  of  the  Kin 
dynasty  were  made  of  jade,  gold,  rhinoceros-horn, 
ivory,  bone,  and  horn,  and  were  graded  in  the  order  of 
these  materials.  This  point  bears  out  the  fact  that 
ku-tu-si  represents  a  category  of  its  own,  and  can  have 
been  neither  elephant  ivory  nor  rhinoceros-horn,  which 
were  the  common  articles  for  the  girdles  of  the  Kin 
or  Jurchi.  Moreover  we  know  the  Jurchi  terms  for 
elephant  ivory  and  rhinoceros-horn,  and  these  are  dis- 
tinct from  ku-tu-si,  which  refers  to  walrus  ivory. 

Chou  Mi  (a.d.  1230-1320),  a  celebrated  and  pro- 
lific writer  of  the  Sung  period,  alludes  to  ku-tu  in  two 
of  his  works.  In  one  of  these  he  cites  the  opinion  of 
Sien-yu  Ch'u,  a  poet  and  caligrapher,  who  possessed 
two  knife-hilts  made  of  this  substance,  to  the  effect 
that  "ku-tu  is  a  horn  of  the  earth,"  which  may  pos- 
sibly mean  a  horn  found  in  the  ground  or  under- 
ground. This  might  be  construed  to  allude  to  mam- 
moth tusks,  although  the  evidence  is  not  conclusive  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  walrus  and  narwhal  tusks  are 
likewise  found  in  and  under  the  ground  along  sea- 
shores. In  another  book  Chou  Mi  writes  that  "ku- 
tu-si  is  the  horn  of  a  large  snake  and  that,  being 
poisonous  by  nature,  it  is  capable  of  counteracting  all 
poisons,  as  poison  is  treated  with  poison."  This 
poison-curing  property  is  a  notion  transferred  to  ku-tu 
from  the  ancient  beliefs  in  the  efficacy  of  rhinoceros- 
horn.  The  Chinese  fondly  entertained  the  idea  that 
the  rhinoceros  feeding  on  brambles  swallows  all  sorts 
of  vegetable  poisons  which  penetrate  into  its  horn,  so 
that  in  accordance  with  the  principle  that  poison  can 
neutralize  poison,  the  horn  or  a  cup  carved  from  it 
becomes  an  efficient  antidote.  In  1320,  Pi-ming,  a  son 
of  Sien-yii  Ch'u,  was  still  the  owner  of  the  objects  of 
which  his  father  had  spoken  to  Chou  Mi  thirty  years 
earlier,  and  Ye  Sen  who  saw  them  in  his  possession 


56  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

wrote  an  additional  note  on  the  subject  which  is  em- 
bodied in  Chou  Mi's  work.  He  observes  that  the  natu- 
ral designs  displayed  in  the  two  knife-hilts  of  ku- 
ta-si  resembled  the  sugar-cakes  then  sold  in  the 
markets ;  there  also  were  white  'spots  somewhat  like 
those  on  candied  cakes  and  pastry.  "When  touching 
this  substance  with  your  hands,"  he  concludes,  "it 
emits  an  odor  like  that  of  cinnamon;  when  after  rub- 
bing it  no  odor  is  perceptible,  it  is  a  counterfeit." 
Walrus  ivory,  on  being  rubbed,  indeed  emits  a  certain 
odor.  Ye  Sen's  remark  shows  that  the  fakers  were 
no  less  busy  in  China  six  hundred  years  ago  than  at 
present  and  that  then  also  certain  sleights  were  per- 
formed to  test  the  genuineness  of  an  article. 

During  the  Mongol  period  the  Chinese  learned  the 
fact  that  walrus  ivory  was  found  among  the  products 
of  the  western  countries.  In  A.D.  1259  Chang  Te  was 
dispatched  by  the  Mongol  emperor  Mangu  as  an  envoy 
to  his  brother  Hulagu,  king  of  Persia.  On  his  return 
to  China  he  published  a  diary  of  his  journey  in  which 
he  mentions,  among  the  products  of  the  west,  ku-tu-si 
as  the  horn  of  a  large  snake  which  has  the  property 
of  neutralizing  every  poison.  It  is  an  interesting  co- 
incidence that  the  Kitan-Chinese  term  ku-tu  has  mi- 
grated westward  and  that  for  the  first  time  it  makes 
its  appearance  in  a  mineralogical  treatise  of  the  great 
Arabic  traveller  and  scholar,  al-Beruni  (a.d.  973- 
1048)  ;  subsequently  it  recurs  frequently  in  Arabic, 
Turkish,  and  Persian  authors.  Al-Beruni  writes  that 
khutu  is  much  in  demand,  and  is  preserved  in  the 
treasuries  of  the  Chinese  who  assert  that  it  is  a  de- 
sirable article  because  the  approach  of  poison  causes 
it  to  exude,  and  that  it  was  wrought  into  knife-hilts. 

In  the  age  of  the  Mongols  we  receive  an  inter- 
esting bit  of  folk-lore  which  has  been  recorded  by 
Haithon,  king  of  Armenia  (1224-69),  in  the  narrative 
of  his  journey  to  the  Mongols  written  by  Kirakos  of 


Walrus  Ivory  in  China  57 

Gandsak.  Haithon  relates  the  universal  legend  of  the 
country  of  the  dog-heads,  where  the  men  have  the 
shape  of  dogs,  but  the  women  have  the  human  form 
and  are  endowed  with  reason.  These  fabulous  crea- 
tures were  located  by  the  Chinese  in  an  island  of  the 
northern  Pacific,  and  Haithon  adds,  "There  is  also  a 
sandy  island  there  where  is  found  a  precious  bone  in 
the  form  of  a  tree,  called  fish-tooth;  when  it  is  cut, 
another  bone  will  shoot  forth  at  the  same  spot,  in  the 
manner  of  deer's  antlers."  The  question  is  here  of 
walrus  tusks:  the  tusk  was  regarded  as  a  "horn"  (cf. 
p.  36)  ;  and  in  the  same  manner  as  the  stag  sheds  its 
antlers,  so  also  the  "horns"  of  the  marine  mammals 
were  believed  to  become  detached  and  to  grow  again. 

Toward  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, when  the  Russians  established  commercial  rela- 
tions with  China,  they  traded  chiefly  two  articles — 
seal-skins  and  walrus  tusks,  the  latter  being  styled  in 
the  Russian  documents  of  the  time  "bones  of  walrus 
tooth."  A  contemporaneous  Chinese  book  (the  Pa 
hung  yi  shi  written  by  Lu  Ts'e-yun  in  1683)  contains 
a  brief  description  of  Russia  under  the  name  A-lu-su 
(based  on  the  Mongol  name  of  Russia,  Oros)  and  men- 
tions the  fact  that  in  the  reign  of  K'ang-hi  (1662- 
1722)  the  Russians  presented  fish-teeth,  black  sables, 
gyrfalcons,  a  striking  clock,  glass  mirrors,  and  other 
objects.  It  is  perfectly  obvious  that  the  "fish-teeth" 
of  this  text,  as  corroborated  by  the  coeval  Russian 
documents,  represent  walrus  tusks. 

Gerbillon,  one  of  the  old  Jesuit  missionaries  work- 
ing in  Peking  (in  Du  Halde,  Description  of  the  Empire 
of  China,  Vol.  II,  p.  263,  1741),  speaking  of  the  trade 
of  the  Russians,  mentions  "the  teeth  of  a  sort  of  fish, 
which  are  much  finer,  whiter,  and  more  precious  than 
ivory.  With  these  they  drive  a  great  trade  to  Peking, 
though  scarcely  any  people  but  the  Russians,  who  are 
poor,  and  inured  to  cold  and  fatigue,  would  take  so 


58  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

much  pains  for  so  little  profit."  In  a  footnote  it  is 
added,  "They  are  those  called  Mamuts  teeth,  found 
lately  to  be  the  teeth  of  elephants."  But  as  already 
remarked  by  J.  Rankin  (p.  454),  this  is  an  addition 
of  the  translator,  and  the  term  "fish-teeth"  used  by 
Gerbillon,  as  well  as  the  emphasis  laid  on  the  white 
color,  demonstrates  plainly  that  the  question  is  of 
walrus  tusks. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in 
the  era  of  K'ang-hi,  the  Chinese  have  gradually  be- 
come acquainted  with  the  walrus.  In  the  dictionary 
Cheng  tse  t'ung  it  is  designated  "sea-horse"  (hai  ma), 
defined  as  "a  fish  or  seal  with  teeth  as  strong  and 
bright  as  bone  and  adorned  with  designs  as  fine  as 
silk, — workable  into  implements."  A  curious  descrip- 
tion of  the  animal  is  also  given  in  the  Hai  lu  ("Records 
of  the  Ocean"),  a  small  book  published  in  1800  by 
Yang  Ping-nan  and  containing  accounts  of  foreign 
nations  from  information  received  through  a  friend 
who  had  spent  fifteen  years  voyaging  to  different  parts 
of  the  world. 

Besides  the  Russians,  the  Gilyak  also,  who  are 
settled  at  the  mouth  of  the  Amur  and  on  the  island  of 
Saghalin,  traded  walrus  ivory  to  the  Chinese  on  the 
Sungari.  The  Gilyak,  on  their  part,  received  the  Arc- 
tic product  through  the  medium  of  the  northern  ad- 
joining tribes  in  times  prior  to  the  Russian  colonization 
of  the  Amur  territory;  the  animal  itself  is  known  to 
the  Gilyak  solely  by  name.  From  1853  they  purchased 
its  tusks  from  the  Russian-American  Company  of 
Nikolayevsk  and  bartered  them  with  the  Chinese  of 
the  Sungari  in  a  profitable  trade  for  other  articles. 
Vladivostok,  prior  to  the  war  at  least,  received  a  share 
of  walrus  ivory  from  Gishiginsk  and  Baron  Korff's 
Bay,  a  region  inhabited  by  the  Koryak.  The  Chukchi 
in  the  farthest  corner  of  northeastern  Asia,  are  great 


Walrus  Ivory  in  China  69 

walrus-hunters,  and  formerly  carried  on  an  enormous 
trade  in  the  tusks. 

In  the  K'ien-lung  period  (1736-95)  walrus  ivory 
was  carved  into  snuff -bottles,  dishes,  stems  for  tobacco- 
pipes,  and  covers  for  cricket-gourds.  As  a  rule,  the 
material  was  stained  a  bright  green  by  means  of  verdi- 
gris to  lend  it  the  appearance  of  jade;  but  it  must  not 
be  inferred  from  this  that  any  ivory  thus  treated  is 
that  of  the  walrus  and  that  ivory  kept  in  its  natural 
colors  is  necessarily  that  of  the  elephant.  The  hand 
of  the  back-scratcher  shown  in  the  case,  for  instance, 
is  white,  but  of  walrus  ivory. 

Finally,  America  came  to  the  fore  in  the  exporta- 
tion of  this  article.  It  was  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury that  walrus  ivory  under  the  name  hai-ma  ya  ("sea- 
horse teeth"),  by  which  it  is  still  commonly  known  in 
Canton,  was  imported  into  that  city  in  large  quantity 
from  California,  Sitka,  and  other  parts  of  western 
America.  The  first  American  ship  that  reached  China 
was  the  "Empress  of  China"  which  arrived  at  Canton 
in  1784,  mainly  with  a  cargo  of  ginseng.  A  company 
in  Boston  sent  in  1788  two  ships  to  the  Northwest 
Coast,  the  "Columbia"  and  the  "Lady  Washington," 
which  spent  the  spring  and  the  summer  of  the  follow- 
ing year  in  trading  along  the  coast.  At  the  close  of 
the  season  all  the  furs  collected  were  put  on  board  the 
"Columbia,"  which  then  proceeded  to  Canton  to  dis- 
pose of  the  peltry,  and  with  a  cargo  of  Chinese  goods 
returned  to  Boston  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
arriving  in  August  1790  as  the  first  American  vessel 
which  had  circumnavigated  the  globe.  The  following 
years  show  a  considerable  growth  in  the  American 
Northwest  Coast  trade,  until  in  1801  there  were  at 
least  fourteen  American  ships  on  the  coast.  The  nor- 
mal voyage  was  to  sail  from  the  United  States  in  the 
summer  or  early  autumn,  and  to  arrive  on  the  North- 


60  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

west  Coast  in  the  spring.  The  captains  would  then 
trade  with  the  Indians  from  inlet  to  inlet,  getting 
skins,  preferably  those  of  the  rare  sea-otter,  in  ex- 
change for  trinkets,  knives,  firearms,  blankets,  cotton 
and  woollen  cloths.  In  the  autumn  they  would  cross 
the  Pacific  to  Canton,  or  if  they  had  not  yet  obtained 
a  cargo,  they  would  winter  at  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
and  trade  on  the  Coast  a  second  and  even  a  third  sea- 
son before  going  to  China.  Once  there  they  would 
exchange  their  cargo  for  tea  and  other  goods  and 
return  to  the  United  States  by  way  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  The  voyages,  as  a  rule,  were  very  lucra- 
tive. The  original  outlay  was  small,  the  furs  sold  in 
Canton  at  a  large  gain,  and  the  teas  and  other  goods 
purchased  with  the  proceeds  brought  another  profit  in 
America  or  Europe.  The  voyages,  however,  were  full 
of  risk  and  required  experience,  and  the  trade  was  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  large  firms  (cf.  K.  S.  Latourette, 
History  of  Early  Relations  between  the  United  States 
and  China  1784-1844,  Yale  University  Press,  1917). 
The  beginnings  of  the  trade  in  walrus  ivory  may  be 
traceable  to  these  early  cruises. 

In  1913  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor 
in  Washington  published  the  following  communication 
from  F.  D.  Cheshire,  American  Consul-General  at  Can- 
ton: "Before  the  revolution,  about  eighteen  months 
ago,  there  was  considerable  trade  in  the  manufacture 
from  walrus  ivory  tusks  of  tobacco-pipe  mouth-pieces, 
handles  of  fans,  thumb-rings,  and  peacock-feather 
tubes  for  mandarin  hats.  These  articles  were  sent  to 
Peking,  where  they  were  dyed  a  green  color,  resem- 
bling the  color  of  jade,  but  since  the  revolution  there 
has  been  very  little  activity  in  the  manufacture  of 
such  goods  from  walrus  tusks.  The  demand  has  fallen 
off  considerably,  and  the  trade  is  confined  to  making 
cigarette  holders,  tooth-brushes,  and  chopsticks.  The 
value  of  walrus  tusks  is  $280  to  $400  Hongkong  cur- 


American  Trade  of  Walrus  Ivory  to  China  61 

rency  per  picul  (133^  pounds).  Elephant  tusks  are 
worth  $700  to  $1,200  Hongkong  currency  per  picul. 
The  elephant  tusks  are  more  serviceable  and  at  the 
same  time  more  valuable." 

At  the  same  time,  Consul-General  G.  E.  Anderson 
of  Hongkong  reported  to  the  Department  that  inquiry 
among  local  importing  and  exporting  firms  and  dealers 
in  ivory  of  Hongkong  failed  to  locate  any  importations 
of  walrus  ivory,  but  that  elephant  ivory  was  imported 
in  large  quantities,  and  was  shipped  mostly  to  Canton. 

According  to  a  communication  of  the  United 
States  Collector  of  Customs  at  the  port  of  Juneau, 
Alaska,  there  was  during  the  year  1913  exported  direct 
from  Alaska  to  China  4,000  lbs.  of  walrus  ivory,  to 
the  value  of  $1,200,  and  from  Alaska  to  the  United 
States  7,763  lbs.  of  foreign  walrus  ivory,  to  the  value 
of  $2,717.  The  destination  of  the  latter  quantity  was 
unknown  to  the  office  at  Juneau,  but  it  was  believed 
there  that  the  bulk  of  this  ivory  found  its  way  to 
Japan  and  China.  The  shipment  of  ivory  to  China 
was  made  in  that  year  by  the  Norwegian  tramp 
steamer  "Kit"  from  Nome  en  route  to  Japan ;  there  is 
no  regular  transportation  line  direct  from  the  Alaskan 
coast  to  the  Orient,  but  occasionally  tramp  steamers 
call  at  different  ports,  bound  for  the  Orient. 

During  the  year  1924  there  were  shipped  from 
Alaska  to  the  United  States  4,854  pounds  of  ivory 
valued  at  $6,602.  This  includes  ivory  of  all  kinds,  but 
it  is  mostly  walrus  ivory  (communication  of  the  U.  S. 
Collector  of  Customs  at  Juneau,  January  19,  1925) . 

During  my  stay  in  China  in  1923  I  made  in- 
quiries among  the  ivory  carvers  of  both  Peking  and 
Shanghai.  They  were  perfectly  well  acquainted  with 
walrus  ivory  and  knew  that  the  tusks,  specimens  of 
which  were  kept  in  their  shops  and  readily  shown 
me,  came  from  America.     In  Shanghai  the  old  term 


62  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

"fish-tooth"  (yii  ya)  is  still  in  use;  both  in  Shanghai 
and  Peking  a  new  term  has  also  sprung  into  existence 
— ts'iu  Mo  ("horn  of  the  ts'iu,"  originally  the  desig- 
nation of  some  giant  fish  and  the  loach). 

The  Japanese  likewise  utilized  (and  still  utilize) 
both  walrus  and  narwhal  ivory  (besides  elephant 
ivory)  for  their  netsuke  and  other  carvings.  At  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century  shipwrecked  Japanese 
sailors  cast  adrift  on  the  Aleutian  Islands  acquainted 
their  countrymen  with  the  walrus  by  means  of  a  some- 
what grotesque,  but  unmistakable  sketch.  It  happens 
that  walrus  sometimes  get  astray  into  the  waters  of 
Japan,  and  about  1890  one  was  caught  near  Hakodate 
in  Tsugaru  Strait,  which  must  have  passed  along  the 
Kurils  from  the  north.  The  walrus  is  called  in  Japa- 
nese kaiba  ("sea-horse")  ;  its  teeth,  kaiba  no  kiba.  It 
is  curious  that  formerly  also  the  term  unikoro  (our 
"unicorn")  was  used  and  written  with  two  Chinese 
characters  which  mean  "single  horn."  This  hints  at 
a  trade  in  the  product  with  Portuguese  and  Hollanders. 
Under  the  foreign  name  mentioned  a  pair  of  walrus 
tusks  is  figured  in  the  Japanese  cyclopaedia  Wa-kan 
san-zai-zu-e,  first  published  in  1714,  with  the  explana- 
tion that  such  tusks  were  imported  on  Dutch  ships 
coming  from  Batavia ;  they  were  6-7  feet  in  length  and 
measured  3-4  inches  in  circumference,  resembling  ele- 
phant ivory.  Among  the  temple  treasures  of  Nikko, 
a  narwhal  tooth  is  still  preserved  in  the  temple  of 
Iyemitsu.  The  rectangular  box  in  which  it  is  kept  is 
inscribed  with  the  words  "a  horn  of  the  Barbarians" 
(Ban-kaku  isshi) .  This  tusk  is  said  to  have  been  pre- 
sented by  the  Hollanders  in  1671.  According  to  Thun- 
berg  whose  travels  extended  over  the  years  1770  to 
1779,  narwhal  ivory  was  contraband  in  Japan  before 
his  time,  and  the  Hollanders  reaped  immense  profits 
by  it,  as  the  Japanese,  who  attributed  to  it  all  medicinal 
virtues,  were  willing  to  pay  exorbitant  prices  for  it. 


IVORY  SUBSTITUTES 

Substitutes  for  ivory  have  been  plentiful,  both  in 
ancient  and  modern  times.  The  ancients  used  the 
teeth  of  the  hippopotamus  ("river  horse")  of  the 
Nile  like  ivory:  thus  Pausanias  mentions  a  golden 
statue  of  Demeter  whose  face  was  formed  of  hippo- 
potamus teeth.  The  animal  was  known  to  the  Hebrews 
under  the  name  behemoth  (Job,  XL,  10),  which  is  de- 
rived from  the  Egyptian  p-ehe-mau  ("water-ox").  We 
have  seen  that  Avril  availed  himself  of  this  Hebrew 
word  for  the  designation  of  the  walrus,  and  it  has  even 
been  suggested  that  the  word  mammoth  has  been  de- 
rived from  behemoth  through  the  medium  of  an  Arabic 
form  mehemoth.  It  is  by  no  means  certain,  however, 
that  this  etymology  is  correct.  The  word  behemoth 
was  used  rather  flexibly,  and  was  referred  not  only 
to  the  mammoth,  but  also  to  any  large  and  strange 
beast,  for  instance,  to  the  rhinoceros.  Hekataeus,  one 
of  Herodotus'  authorities,  is  the  first  who  gave  a  de- 
scription of  the  hippopotamus.  The  animal  was 
hunted  by  means  of  harpoons,  and  large  numbers  were 
captured  alive  to  be  sent  to  Rome  for  the  purpose  of 
fighting  in  the  circus  with  crocodiles.  Both  skin  and 
teeth  were  used  for  industrial  work.  Arabic  authors 
like  Masudi  and  Damiri  refer  to  the  animal;  and,  in 
his  notes  on  Egypt,  Chao  Ju-kwa,  a  Chinese  author, 
who  wrote  in  a.d.  1225,  mentions  water-horses  in  the 
Nile,  which  come  out  of  the  river  to  feed  on  the  herbs 
growing  on  the  banks,  but  which  dive  into  the  water 
at  the  sight  of  a  man.  Kubilai,  the  Great  Khan,  as 
Marco  Polo  relates,  received  from  envoys  he  had  sent 
to  Africa  "two  boars'  tusks,  which  weighed  more  than 
fourteen  pounds  apiece;  and  you  may  gather  how  big 
the  boar  must  have  been  that  had  teeth  like  that !  They 
related  indeed  that  there  were  some  of  those  boars  as 
big  as  a  great  buffalo."  These  boar's  teeth,  as  Yule 
comments  in  his  edition  of  Marco  Polo,  were  indubi- 

63 


64  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

tably  hippopotamus  teeth,  which  form  a  considerable 
article  of  export  from  Zanzibar.  Burton  speaks  of 
their  reaching  twelve  pounds  in  weight. 

Francesco  Carletti,  who  travelled  in  America  and 
in  the  Far  East  from  1594  to  1606  and  whose  very 
interesting  book  in  Italian,  entitled  "Ragionamenti," 
was  published  at  Florence  in  1701,  discusses  the  Mo- 
hammedan trade  at  Goa  and  mentions  the  importation 
of  sea-horse  teeth  (il  dente  del  cavallo  marino),  which 
he  identifies  with  the  hippopotamus.  He  further  men- 
tions another  tooth,  no  less  marvelous  and  of  no  less 
virtue  coming  from  a  fish  called  Fish  Woman  (Pesce 
Donna),  so  called  from  the  resemblance  it  bears  to  a 
human  creature.  It  is  said  that  this  fish  has  solely 
one  tooth  of  marvelous  virtue  for  stopping  the  flow 
of  blood;  yet  of  all  these  teeth  they  make  without 
distinction  crowns  and  rings,  as  likewise  of  the  tooth 
of  the  hippopotamus  to  which  they  attribute  the  same 
virtue,  but  it  is  not  so  highly  esteemed.  This  "fish" 
is  the  dugong  (Halicore  dugong),  a  cetaceous  animal 
found  in  all  parts  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  Pliny  and 
Aelian  have  written  about  it;  according  to  the  latter, 
these  creatures  partly  resemble  satyrs,  partly  human 
women.  The  Chinese  also  have  their  share  of  fables 
about  this  creature,  believing  that  in  the  course  of 
many  years  its  teeth  change  into  dragon's  teeth,  and 
in  this  state  they  call  the  animal  "pig-woman-dragon." 
Its  teeth  were  formerly  imported  into  China  from  the 
southern  seas  to  be  made  into  knife-hilts  and  handles 
for  fans.  They  were  even  imitated  with  elephant 
ivory  which  was  subjected  to  an  artificial  treatment 
by  means  of  chemicals. 

At  the  first  quarterly  ivory  sale  held  at  Antwerp  in 
1912,  71  hippopotamus  tusks  were  sold,  at  the  second 
quarterly  sale  262  hippopotamus  tusks,  and  at  the  third 
quarterly  sale  97  tusks.    At  one  of  these  sales  held  in 


Ivory  Substitutes  65 

1911,  twelve  kilos  of  rhinoceros  tusks  are  mentioned, 
so  that  also  these  must  serve  as  a  substitute  of  ivory. 

Bones  of  whale,  crocodile,  and  large  sea-fishes  also 
are  said  to  be  used  in  lieu  of  ivory,  particularly  in 
Annam,  where  the  material  is  exposed  to  the  smoke 
of  a  charcoal  fire ;  it  is  then  gently  rubbed  in  the  sun- 
light, and  is  finally  rolled  for  twenty-four  hours  in 
fresh  tobacco-leaves  of  Nicotiana  rustica.  An  ultimate 
energetic  massage  will  produce  a  certain  ivory-like 
appearance  and  a  yellow  tint  which  is  not  unpleasing. 
Similar  bones  are  utilized  in  China  for  cheap  orna- 
ments, but  they  are  invariably  dyed  a  pink  color  and 
sold  under  the  name  "fish-bone"  (yii  ku),  not  as  ivory. 
Teeth  of  the  sperm-whale,  lamantin,  and  other  phocine 
animals  are  imported  into  China  in  limited  quantities, 
and  are  also  used  like  ivory. 

In  Japan,  the  large  canine  teeth  of  the  sea-lion, 
some  of  which  are  nearly  four  inches  in  length  and 
of  the  consistency  of  ivory,  are  sometimes  carved  into 
netsuke.  In  the  same  manner  the  Koryak  of  north- 
eastern Siberia  employ  the  teeth  of  the  white  whale 
and  the  bear  in  carvings. 

Finally  we  have  also  blessed  the  Chinese  with 
celluloid  which  they  euphemistically  call  "European 
ivory." 

OBJECTS  MADE  OF  IVORY 

From  the  preceding  discussion  it  becomes  clear 
that  the  Chinese,  in  the  course  of  their  history,  have 
utilized  the  ivory  of  the  elephant,  the  mammoth,  the 
walrus  and  the  narwhal.  In  specimens  of  the  archaic 
period,  as  illustrated  in  Plate  I,  we  may  not  err  in 
tracing  the  ivory  to  the  native  elephants  of  ancient 
China.  From  the  period  which  marks  the  end  of 
antiquity  down  to  the  middle  ages  (that  is,  from  the 
Han  to  the  close  of  the  T'ang  dynasty,  206  B.C. — a.d. 
906)  we  are  bound  to  assume  that  the  bulk  of  ivory 


66  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

used  by  the  Chinese  came  from  Kwang-tung  and  Yun- 
nan, Annam,  Camboja,  Siam,  Burma,  and  India.  From 
the  tenth  century  onward  the  chief  importers  of  ivory 
into  China  were  the  Arabs,  who  obtained  the  material 
from  Java,  Sumatra,  India,  and  the  east  coast  of 
Africa.  At  present  it  is  chiefly  imported  from  Siam, 
India,  and  Africa,  and  the  African  ivory  will  presum- 
ably preponderate.  The  export  of  ivory  from  Siam 
for  the  fiscal  year  ending  March  31,  1910,  amounted 
to  4,301  pounds,  valued  at  $8,489,  and  this  is  regarded 
as  a  fair  average  of  the  export  for  the  preceding  five 
years;  this  ivory  is  obtained  from  domestic  elephants 
that  have  died  a  natural  death,  as  the  animal  is  not 
hunted  in  Siam  for  its  ivory;  the  number  of  tame 
elephants  kept  in  Siam  is  roughly  estimated  at  about 
three  thousand.  From  Bombay  also  much  ivory  is  at 
present  exported  to  China. 

To  what  extent  mammoth  ivory  was  utilized  in 
China  is  a  question  difficult  to  answer.  It  is  said  that 
the  furniture-makers  of  Ning-po  used  it  for  inlaying 
tables.  The  desk-ornament  illustrated  in  Plate  IX, 
Fig.  3,  is  possibly  a  piece  of  mammoth  ivory;  it  is 
deep  brown  and  yellow  in  color,  and  is  left  in  its  natu- 
ral state,  being  only  sawed  off  and  polished  along 
the  base.  The  Chinese  collector  from  whom  I  obtained 
this  object  in  1923  was  unable  to  give  any  informa- 
tion about  it. 

The  articles  most  commonly  made  of  walrus  ivory 
are  combs  and  back-scratchers  both  of  which  are  kept 
intact  in  their  natural  colors,  handles  for  fans  (see 
exhibition  of  fans  in  Blackstone  Chinese  Collection), 
dice  for  gambling,  ear-rings  and  other  small  ornaments 
usually  dyed  green  with  verdigris,  and,  above  all,  chop- 
sticks. It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  although  the  whole- 
sale price  of  raw  walrus  ivory  is  lower  than  that  of 
elephant  ivory,  chopsticks  of  the  former  material  are 
higher  priced  in  Peking  than  those  of  the  latter.    A 


Objects  Made  of  Ivory  67 

pair  of  good  elephant-ivory  chopsticks  may  be  bought 
anywhere  at  a  price  of  Chinese  $1.80-2.00,  while  a 
pair  of  green  walrus-ivory  chopsticks,  like  that  placed 
on  exhibition,  which  is  a  perfect  specimen,  retails  in 
Peking  at  Chinese  $12.00,  and  a  pair  but  partially 
green  at  Chinese  $5.50.  Chopsticks  are  a  remarkable 
Chinese  invention,  and,  as  stated,  were  used  as  early 
as  the  Chou  period;  in  the  sculptured  bas-reliefs  of 
the  Han  period  many  banquets  are  illustrated  with 
chopsticks  in  evidence.  While  all  other  nations  took 
their  food  with  their  fingers,  the  Chinese  were  the 
first  who  introduced  and  practised  good  table-manners. 

The  small  dish  illustrated  in  Plate  IX,  Fig.  1,  is 
likewise  of  walrus  ivory  stained  green  and  carved  all 
over  into  a  swirl  of  waves  rising  into  crests  along  the 
edge.  The  two  covers  for  cricket-gourds  in  Figs.  4 
and  5  of  the  same  Plate  are  made  of  the  same  sub- 
stance. One  shows  a  boat  in  which  a  lady  with  a 
basket  stands,  speaking  to  a  man  seated  in  a  mat- 
covered  cabin.  The  other  is  carved  in  two  layers,  the 
upper  one  in  green  representing  a  bird  on  the  wing 
flying  toward  a  blossoming  plum-branch  (see,  further, 
below,  p.  74). 

Archaic  objects  of  ivory  are  figured  in  Plate  I 
and  have  been  referred  to  on  p.  9.  As  to  the  T'ang 
period  (a.d.  618-906) ,  the  Japanese  Treasure-house  of 
Nara  furnishes  us  some  good  examples,  as,  for  in- 
stance, a  backgammon  board  of  sandalwood  decorated 
with  ivory  inlays  (Toyei  Shuko,  pi.  72),  and  two  stan- 
dard foot-measures  of  ivory  colored  red  and  green,  re- 
spectively (pi.  82-83).  As  Omura  Seigai  informs  us, 
ivory  at  that  time  (eighth  century)  was  colored  crim- 
son, indigo,  green,  or  some  other  shade,  and  on  this 
colored  surface  floral  designs  were  so  engraved  that 
the  unstained  part  of  the  ivory  stood  out.  He  states 
that  this  process  has  altogether  been  lost,  and  was  not 
used  in  later  times.     This  may  hold  good  for  Japan, 


68  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

but  in  China  it  survived  at  least  down  to  the  K'ien- 
lung  period  from  which  we  have  ivory  snuff-bottles 
with  paintings  of  the  same  technique.  The  fact  that 
ivory  was  painted  in  China  under  the  Tang  may  be 
gleaned  from  an  ivory  fragment  found  by  Sir  Aurel 
Stein  (Serindia,  p.  779)  in  the  Limes  of  Tun-hwang; 
it  bears  traces  of  a  painted  leaf -scroll  in  green.  Ivory 
dyed  by  means  of  purple  in  Asia  Minor  was  known  in 
the  Homeric  age  (Iliad,  IV,  141).  The  Hawaiians 
colored  whale  ivory  yellow  by  smoking  it  with  green 
banana  leaves. 

Under  the  Mongols  who  ruled  China  as  the  Yuan 
dynasty  (a.d.  1260-1367),  a  bureau  for  carvings  in 
ivory  and  rhinoceros-horn  was  established.  In  this 
court-atelier  couches,  tables,  implements,  and  girdle- 
ornaments  inlaid  with  ivory  and  horn  were  turned  out 
for  the  imperial  household.  An  official  was  placed  in 
charge  of  it  in  1263',  and  the  force  consisted  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  workmen.  Again,  toward  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  under  the  reign  of  K'ang- 
hi,  an  atelier  for  ivory  works  was  founded  within  the 
palace  at  Peking  in  connection  with  twenty-six  other 
establishments  for  the  practise  of  all  industrial  arts. 
Experienced  craftsmen  for  the  various  branches  of 
work  were  summoned  to  Peking  from  all  parts  of  the 
empire.  These  factories  lasted  somewhat  more  than 
a  century,  and  were  closed  after  the  reign  of  K'ien- 
lung  (1795).  Authentic  productions  which  could  be 
safely  identified  with  the  output  of  the  Mongol  im- 
perial works  have  not  yet  come  to  light ;  but  there  are 
authentic  specimens  of  the  K'ien-lung  period,  which 
have  come  from  the  imperial  palace  and  without  any 
doubt  were  fabricated  in  the  imperial  atelier,  as,  for 
instance,  the  fan  illustrated  in  Plate  VIII.  This  is  a 
marvel  of  technical  skill  and  harmonious  beauty,  being 
plaited  from  finely  cut  ivory  threads  held  by  a  tortoise- 
shell  rim  and  overlaid  with  colored  ivory  carvings  of 


Objects  Made  of  Ivory  69 

lilies,  peonies,  asters,  and  a  butterfly.  The  handle, 
likewise  of  ivory,  bears  etched  designs  in  colors  of 
flowers  and  butterflies.  The  carved  medallion  on  the 
dividing  rod  in  the  centre  is  of  amber,  and  the  orna- 
ment above  the  handle  is  of  brass  inlaid  with  blue 
kingfisher  feathers.  At  the  time  of  the  Han,  Wei  and 
Tsin  periods  (first  to  fifth  century  A.D.),  as  we  read 
in  Chinese  accounts,  mats  of  ivory  were  made.  The 
ivory  plaiting  in  the  above  fan  may  give  us  a  clew  to 
the  technique  of  such  mats.  John  Barrow,  who  visited 
China  in  1792,  speaks  of  neat  baskets  and  hats  made 
at  Canton  from  ivory  shavings  interwoven  with  pieces 
of  quills,  and  as  light  and  pliant  as  baskets  and  hats 
of  straw. 

Paleologue  (L'Art  chinois)  said  in  1887  that  the 
fine  Chinese  ivories  are  excessively  rare,  and  that  the 
Buddhistic  statuettes  offer  us  the  most  interesting 
specimens  of  sculptured  ivory.  Unfortunately  such 
statuettes  never  bear  the  signature  or  seal  of  the 
artist,  nor  are  names  of  ivory-carvers  preserved  to  us 
in  any  records,  so  that  we  are  entirely  ignorant  of  art- 
schools  and  artists  working  in  this  field. 

The  goddess  of  compassion,  Kwan  Yin,  has  been 
the  most  favored  subject  of  the  sculptors,  who  were 
particularly  tempted  by  the  task  of  presenting  the 
drapery  of  her  long,  flowing  garb  in  graceful  sweeps 
and  elegant  lines.  The  statuette  (Plate  II,  Fig.  1) 
representing  her  is  a  masterpiece  of  modeling  ani- 
mated by  life  and  motion,  and  is  a  triumph  of  the 
spirit  over  matter.  Her  left  hand  supports  a  bowl 
believed  to  be  filled  with  the  nectar  of  immortality, 
and  her  right  hand  touches  a  ladle  inserted  in  the 
bowl,  ready  to  distribute  her  gifts  among  her  devotees. 
Bracelets  adorn  both  her  wrists.  Her  face  is  refined 
and  spiritual  and  astir  with  religious  fervor.  The 
lines  of  the  figure  and  the  drapery  of  the  robe  are 
exquisite,  worthy  of  a  Madonna.     No  less  impressive 


70  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

is  the  statuette  of  Tung-fang  So  (Plate  II,  Fig.  2) 
whom  we  met  as  author  of  a  book  of  marvels  (p.  24). 
He  lived  in  the  second  century  B.C.  as  a  poet,  states- 
man, and  adept  versed  in  the  mysteries  of  Taoism.  He 
was  reputed  as  being  possessed  of  divine  wisdom  and 
supernatural  powers,  and  is  said  to  have  thrice  ab- 
stracted from  paradise  the  famed  peaches  of  immor- 
tality which  ripen  but  once  in  three  years.  He  was 
on  intimate  terms  with  the  emperor  Wu,  amusing  him 
with  humorous  sallies  and  earning  for  himself  the 
sobriquet  of  the  Wit.  Our  figure  shows  him  as  a 
genial  old  man  with  long  whiskers  and  deep  furrows 
over  his  eyes;  he  handles  a  palm-leaf  fan  in  his  right 
hand.  The  carving  of  the  figure  is  cleverly  adapted  to 
the  natural  curve  of  the  elephant  tusk.  Both  these 
statuettes  may  be  confidently  ascribed  to  the  Ming 
period  (1368-1643).  Both  have  developed  fine  patinas 
of  dark  brown  and  deep  yellow. 

A  somewhat  different  style  is  represented  in  the 
statuette  of  a  Buddhist  monk  of  pure-white  ivory 
(Plate  III),  apparently  a  portrait  modelled  from  life 
in  the  era  of  K'arig-hi  (1662-1722).  He  is  obviously 
shown  in  the  act  of  preaching  a  sermon  of  Buddha's 
gospel  based  on  the  text  that  is  written  on  the  roll 
of  paper  which  he  grasps  in  his  left  hand.  Bald- 
headed,  as  the  Buddhist  monks  are,  with  bright,  intel- 
ligent eyes  (outlined  in  black),  high  forehead,  and  his 
lips  in  motion,  he  stands  there  a  worthy  disciple  of 
Qakyamuni,  humble  and  modest,  sincere  and  fully  con- 
scious of  the  truth  of  his  convictions. 

The  Arhats  (in  Chinese  Lo-han),  the  celebrated 
disciples  of  the  Buddha,  form  the  subjects  of  the  ivory 
figures  in  Plates  IV  and  V.  The  two  grouped  in  Plate 
IV  were  evidently  turned  out  by  the  same  artist  in 
the  K'ien-lung  period  (1736-95)  ;  in  style  and  attri- 
butes they  closely  approach  the  Arhat  paintings  of 
that  time.    Both  figures  are  characterized  by  the  same 


Objects  Made  of  Ivory  71 

massive  head,  the  same  high  helmet-shaped  craniums, 
bulging  eyes,  large  noses,  heavy  mustaches  and  beards. 
The  Arhat  in  Fig.  1  sets  his  foot  on  the  back  of  a  lion 
(symbolizing  the  saint's  power  over  the  wild  animals)  ; 
in  his  right  hand  he  holds  a  branch  with  fungus  of 
immortality  (ling-chi)  which,  strictly  speaking,  is  a 
Taoist  emblem,  and  in  his  left  hand  a  fly-brush  or 
chowry,  an  ancient  emblem  of  royalty  or  rank,  usually 
made  of  yak-tails  or  coir.  The  tip  of  the  chowry 
tickles  the  lips  of  the  lion  who  devotedly  looks  up  to 
his  master.  A  rosary  is  slung  around  his  neck.  His 
companion  (Fig.  2)  sets  his  left  foot  on  the  head  of 
the  three-legged  mythical  frog.  He  is  represented  in 
the  act  of  conjuring  a  dragon  from  his  alms-bowl, 
pointing  at  him  a  bead  of  the  rosary  which  he  holds 
between  the  thumb  and  index-finger  of  his  right  hand. 

In  each  of  the  two  figures  illustrated  in  Plate  V 
two  Arhats  are  grouped  together,  each  pair,  including 
the  base,  being  carved  from  a  single  piece  of  ivory.  In 
the  first  group  a  monk  hurls  a  dragon's  head  into  the 
face  of  his  frightened  companion,  who  is  suddenly  in- 
terrupted in  his  prayers  during  which  he  was  running 
off  the  beads  of  his  rosary  and  burning  incense.  The 
counterpart  of  this  figure  presents  a  monk  clasping 
his  arm  around  his  brother's  shoulder  and  showing  him 
a  snake.  Terror-stricken  he  screams  aloud  and  presses 
hard  his  left  foot  on  the  tiger  below  who  feels  the  force 
of  his  master's  emotion.  The  conception  of  both  groups 
is  highly  dramatic  and  emotional. 

In  a.d.  484  Jayavarman,  king  of  Fu-nan  (Cam- 
boja),  sent  Nagasena,  an  Indian  monk,  with  a  long 
letter  to  the  emperor  of  China,  offering  as  presents 
an  elephant  carved  from  white  sandal-wood  and  two 
topes  (stupas)  of  ivory.  The  Museum  is  in  the  pos- 
session of  an  ivory  seal  from  Siam  presented  by  Miss 
C.  Wicker ;  it  is  carved  in  the  form  of  a  tope,  and  such 
seals  are  still  used  by  Buddhist  monks.    The  design  in 


72  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

the  seal  is  a  cat  amid  plants ;  the  cat  was  sacred  to  the 
monks  as  the  animal  exterminating  the  rats  which 
threatened  their  sacred  books  with  destruction;  the 
domesticated  cat  was  hence  introduced  by  the  Bud- 
dhists into  China  and  all  other  countries  of  the  Far  East. 

The  esthetic  needs  of  the  scholar  are  cared  for  by 
the  ivory-carver  in  the  production  of  handsome  writ- 
ing-brushes provided  with  ivory  handle  and  encased 
in  a  sheath  of  ivory.  He  is  also  fond  of  ivory  foot- 
measures  etched  on  the  back  with  delicate  floral  de- 
signs and  birds  in  colors,  but,  above  all,  delights  in 
brush-holders  (pi  tung)  as  a  suitable  decoration  of 
his  desk.  These  are  carved  out  of  the  central  portion 
of  the  tusk  in  the  round,  and  are  decorated  with 
designs  in  high  relief  of  a  plum-tree  growing  out  of  a 
rock  and  surrounded  by  bamboo-leaves  (Plate  VI),  or 
are  adorned  with  a  genre-scene  in  flat  relief,  as  that 
in  Plate  VII,  which  shows  a  horseman  at  night  in  a 
mountain-pass  followed  by  a  flag-bearer,  a  boy  with 
a  lantern  lighting  the  path;  the  scenery  is  enlivened 
by  pine-trees  and  clouds.  Another  ambition  of  the 
literary  man  is  to  possess  an  arm-rest  of  ivory  (usually 
carved  from  bamboo)  with  elaborate  designs;  objects 
like  these  are  used  on  the  desk  for  resting  the  forearm 
while  wielding  the  writing-brush. 

The  ivory  objects  of  which  the  ancient  Chinese 
were  proudest  are  flat  tablets  used  for  ceremonial  pur- 
poses and  call  hu.  Six  fine  specimens  of  these  coming 
down  from  the  Ming  dynasty  (1368-1643)  are  placed 
on  exhibition.  These  tablets  carved  from  elephant 
tusks  formerly  played  a  prominent  part  in  official  life. 
In  very  early  times  they  appear  to  have  been  made  of 
bamboo,  being  suspended  from  the  girdle  which  be- 
longed to  the  dress  of  every  young  gentleman.  They 
were  used  as  memoranda  for  jotting  down  any  notes. 
At  a  somewhat  later  epoch  they  were  made  of  ivory 
and  reserved  for  the  organs  of  government,  develop- 


Objects  Made  of  Ivory  73 

ing  into  insignia  of  rank.  When  a  high  official  had 
audience  at  court,  he  respectfully  held  such  an  ivory 
tablet,  clasping  both  his  hands  around  the  broader 
base,  the  upper  narrow  part  being  at  the  height  of 
his  mouth,  so  that  his  breath  might  not  touch  the 
imperial  face.  He  had  inscribed  on  the  tablet  what- 
ever business  he  wished  to  report  and  submit  to  the 
emperor,  and  recorded  on  it  the  imperial  replies  or 
commands.  The  ancient  Book  of  Rites  (Li  ki)  con- 
tains this  passage,  "When  the  great  prefect  had 
washed  his  head  and  bathed,  his  secretary  brought  him 
the  ivory  tablet  to  write  down  his  thoughts,  his  re- 
plies, and  the  orders  of  the  prince." 

Friar  William  of  Rubruck,  who  sojourned  among 
the  Mongols  from  1253  to  1255,  relates  as  follows: 
"Whenever  the  principal  envoy  came  to  court,  he  car- 
ried a  highly-polished  tablet  of  ivory  about  a  cubit 
long  and  half  a  palm  wide.  Every  time  he  spoke  to 
the  Khan  or  some  great  personage,  he  always  looked 
at  that  tablet  as  if  he  found  there  what  he  had  to 
say,  nor  did  he  look  to  the  right  or  to  the  left,  nor 
in  the  face  of  him  with  whom  he  was  talking.  Like- 
wise, when  coming  into  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and 
when  leaving  it,  he  never  looked  at  anything  but  his 
tablet."  Under  the  Tang  dynasty  (a.d.  618-906)  the 
ivory  tablets  were  round  above  and  angular  below,  and 
were  used  by  officials  down  to  the  sixth  rank;  those 
below  the  sixth  rank  had  bamboo  or  wooden  tablets. 
Under  the  Ming  the  ivory  tablets  were  angular  at  both 
ends,  and  were  granted  to  officials  above  the  fourth 
grade;  those  of  the  fifth  grade  and  below  had  wooden 
ones  with  painted  designs.  They  were  abolished  under 
the  Manchu.  In  Korea  such  tablets  were  used  down  to 
quite  recent  times.  Yuan  Shi-kai,  toward  the  end  of 
his  presidency,  is  said  to  have  attempted  to  introduce 
them  again  in  connection  with  his  scheme  to  restore 
the  monarchy,  but  in  this  he  failed. 


74  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

Girdle-pendants  of  which  the  Chinese  were  for- 
merly very  fond  were  made  of  ivory  also  in  the  K'ien- 
lung  period,  but  are  rather  scarce.  The  one  illustrated 
in  Plate  IX,  Fig.  6,  is  carved  in  the  shape  of  the  so- 
called  "wooden  fish," — a  sort  of  wooden  drum  used  in 
Buddhistic  temples  to  mark  time  in  the  recitation  of 
prayers,  the  handle  being  formed  by  two  dragon- 
heads. Another  pendant  (Plate  X,  Fig.  3)  represents 
two  bean-pods  with  tendrils  and  leaves,  and  that  in 
Fig.  5  two  boys,  so  arranged  that  the  complete  figure 
of  a  boy  (altogether  four)  may  be  seen  from  every 
angle.  A  scent-box  in  the  shape  of  a  flower-basket  is 
shown  in  Fig.  2  of  Plate  IX;  it  is  carved  in  open 
work  with  peaches  and  pomegranates  and  consists  of 
two  halves  joined  together.  It  is  filled  with  perfume 
and  worn  in  front  of  the  dress  during  the  summer. 

In  ancient  Rome  parrots  were  kept  in  cages  of 
gold,  silver,  and  ivory  (StBitius,Silvae,  II,  4,  12),  but 
none  of  these  has  come  down  to  us.  From  China  we 
receive  bird-cages  entirely  made  of  ivory  rods  and 
adorned  with  numerous  small  carvings  of  the  same 
material.  No  other  nation  has  been  more  considerate 
of  the  welfare  of  its  pets  and  lavished  on  them  the 
most  precious  substances  and  the  most  exquisite  work 
that  art  could  offer. 

Crickets  are  kept  by  the  Chinese  for  two  pur- 
poses— to  enjoy  their  melodious  chirps  and  to  train 
them  as  fighters.  A  cricket-fight  is  a  great  event,  and 
large  sums  are  staked  on  the  champions.  In  Peking 
a  special  kind  of  gourd  is  raised  to  keep  the  insects 
during  the  winter.  Many  of  these  gourds  are  elabo- 
rately decorated  and  provided  with  finely  carved  lids 
of  jade  and  ivory.  Five  covers  of  such  cricket-gourds 
are  reproduced  in  Plate  X.  That  in  Fig.  1  shows  an 
open-work  composition  of  plum-blossoms  with  two 
birds;  that  in  Fig.  2,  leaves  and  tendrils  of  a  gourd, 
with  a  butterfly.    The  cover  in  Fig.  5  is  surmounted 


Objects  Made  of  Ivory  75 

by  three  full  figures  of  lions  carved  in  the  round  and 
playing  with  a  ball  in  the  centre;  the  lower  band  is 
decorated  with  a  row  of  peonies  and  leaves.  A  floral 
composition  is  spread  over  the  cover  in  Fig.  6,  and  a 
dragon  striving  for  the  flamed  pearl  is  carved  in 
Fig.  7. 

Ever  since  Europeans  came  into  contact  with  the 
Chinese,  their  ivory  fans  have  elicited  unbounded  ad- 
miration. John  Barrow,  private  secretary  to  the  Earl 
of  Macartney  on  his  mission  to  China  in  1792,  has  the 
following  interesting  notice  on  this  subject:  "Of  all 
the  mechanical  arts  that  in  which  they  seem  to  have 
attained  the  highest  degree  of  perfection  is  the  cutting 
of  ivory.  In  this  branch  they  stand  unrivalled,  even 
at  Birmingham,  that  great  nursery  of  the  arts  and 
manufactures  where,  I  understand,  it  has  been  at- 
tempted by  means  of  a  machine  to  cut  ivory  fans  and 
other  articles,  in  imitation  of  those  of  the  Chinese; 
but  the  experiment,  although  ingenious,  has  not  hither- 
to succeeded  to  that  degree,  so  as  to  produce  articles 
fit  to  vie  with  those  of  the  latter.  Nothing  can  be 
more  exquisitely  beautiful  than  the  fine  open  work 
displayed  in  a  Chinese  fan,  the  sticks  of  which  would 
seem  to  be  singly  cut  by  the  hand,  for  whatever  pat- 
tern may  be  required,  or  a  shield  with  coat  of  arms, 
or  a  cypher,  the  article  will  be  finished  according  to 
the  drawing  at  the  shortest  notice.  The  two  outside 
sticks  are  full  of  bold  sharp  work,  undercut  in  such 
a  manner  as  could  not  be  performed  any  other  way 
than  by  the  hand.  Yet  the  most  finished  and  beautiful 
of  these  fans  may  be  purchased  at  Canton  for  five  to 
ten  Spanish  dollars." 

Ivory  beds  were  a  prominent  feature  in  many 
oriental  countries.  Mong  Ch'ang-kun,  a  Chinese  minis- 
ter of  state,  who  lived  in  the  third  century  B.C.,  was 
famed  for  his  extravagance  and  had  as  many  as  three 
thousand  retainers,  all  of  whom  wore  shoes  embroid- 


76  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

ered  with  pearls ;  he  is  reputed  to  have  been  the  owner 
of  an  ivory  bed  which  he  presented  to  the  prince  of 
Ch'u.  A  certain  Yii  Yang,  who  lived  at  the  time  of 
the  Liang  dynasty  (a.d.  502-556),  was  no  less  noted 
for  his  love  of  luxury;  he  possessed  a  bed  inlaid  with 
ivory,  gold,  and  silver.  On  Java,  the  Chinese  Annals 
of  the  T'ang  dynasty  report,  princes  and  people  had 
ivory  beds;  and  the  same  is  on  record  in  regard  to 
India,  where  couches  and  seats  were  inlaid  with  ivory. 
With  reference  to  the  city  of  Cambaya  (now  Cambay) , 
the  Portuguese  traveller,  Duarte  Barbosa  (a.d.  1518), 
writes,  "A  great  quantity  of  ivory  is  used  here  in 
very  cunning  work,  inlaid  and  turned  articles  such  as 
bangles,  sword-hilts,  dice,  chessmen  and  chess-boards; 
for  there  are  many  skilful  turners  who  make  all  these, 
also  many  ivory  bedsteads  very  cunningly  turned, 
beads  of  sundry  kinds,  black,  yellow,  blue  and  red  and 
many  other  colors,  which  are  carried  hence  to  many 
other  places."  Wooden  beds  with  ivory  inlays  are 
still  made  at  Ning-po  in  Che-kiang  Province. 

The  opium-smoker  has  a  particular  veneration 
for  ivory:  he  may  use  a  pipe  with  ivory  mouth-piece 
and  ivory  boxes  to  contain  the  drug  (cf.  Leaflet  18, 
pp.  24,  35)  ;  he  may  also  avail  himself  of  an  ivory 
spatula  for  taking  a  pill  of  opium  out  of  the  box,  and 
he  may  worship  the  "god  of  opium"  in  the  form  of 
an  ivory  image  (figured  by  A.  de  Pouvourville,  L'Art 
indo-chinois,  p.  189).  Tobacco-pipes  of  ivory  are  de- 
scribed and  figured  in  Leaflet  18  (p.  22).  Snuff- 
bottles  were  also  made  of  this  material,  carved  with 
designs  or  painted. 

The  concentric  ivory  balls  which  have  attracted 
much  attention  and  which  are  still  turned  out  at  Can- 
ton were  manufactured  as  early  as  the  fourteenth 
century  under  the  name  "devil's  work  balls."  There 
is  a  tradition  also  that  they  were  made  in  the  palace 
of  the  Sung  emperors.    They  are  the  result  of  patient 


VOBY 


Objects  Made  of  Ivory  77 

toil,  the  balls  being  carved  one  within  the  other.  Good, 
old  specimens  are  difficult  to  get;  the  modern  ones 
are  usually  intended  for  the  foreign  market. 

In  India  chessmen  and  backgammon  were  made 
of  ivory  at  an  early  date  (account  of  Masudi,  a.d. 
983).  The  Chinese  make  of  ivory  chessmen  (Fig.  13), 
dice,  dominoes,  and  many  other  games  derived  from 
the  latter.  The  foreign  craze  for  ma-jong  has  now 
caused  nearly  all  available  ivory  to  be  absorbed  for 
the  manufacture  of  ma-jong  sets,  which  has  disor- 
ganized the  whole  ivory  industry  and  unfortunately 
stopped  the  production  of  artistic  carvings. 

The  main  seats  of  the  ivory  industry  are  Canton, 
Amoy,  Shanghai,  Suchow,  and  Peking.  As  a  rule,  the 
objects  are  carved  and  sold  in  the  same  shop.  Ivory 
is  now  preferred  in  its  pure  white  state,  and  Canton 
workmen  are  successful  in  removing  yellow  tinges 
from  ivory  and  restoring  it  to  its  pristine  whiteness 
and  brilliancy.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  lack 
of  methods  of  lending  ivory  a  yellow-brown  patina 
and  making  it  appear  old :  for  this  purpose  it  is  placed 
in  a  decoction  of  tobacco  or  tea  leaves,  or  exposed  to 
the  fumes  of  burning  incense. 

Canton,  for  at  least  a  century  or  more,  has  catered 
to  foreign  taste  and  produced  immense  quantities  of 
ivory  ware  for  export.  Although  many  of  these  ar- 
ticles are  marvels  of  patient  workmanship  and  tech- 
nical skill  and  ingenuity,  they  lack  artistic  feeling  and 
finish;  the  carved  concentric  balls,  models  of  boats, 
houses,  temples  and  pagodas  belong  to  this  class. 
Others  like  brooches,  chains,  glove-boxes,  etc.,  are  en- 
tirely foreign  to  the  Chinese,  and  are  solely  intended 
for  the  European  or  American  market.  Articles  like 
these  were  strictly  excluded  from  the  ivory  collection 
of  the  Museum,  and  only  those  made  for  and  used 
by  the  Chinese  were  selected. 

B.   Laufeb. 


78  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  REFERENCES 

Beveridge,  H. — The  Emperor  Jahangir's  Treasures  of  Walrus 
and  Narwhal  Ivory.  Indian  Magazine,  February,  1914, 
pp.  37-39. 

Bishop,  C.  W. — The  Elephant  and  Its  Ivory  in  Ancient  China. 
Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  Vol.  XLI,  1921, 
pp.  290-306. 

Dawkins,  W.  Boyd. — On  the  Range  of  the  Mammoth  in  Space 
and  Time.  Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society, 
1879,  pp.  138-147. 

Howorth,  H.  H. — The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood.    London,  1887. 

Kunz,  G.  F. — Ivory  and  the  Elephant  in  Art,  in  Archaeology, 
and  in  Science.  New  York  (Doubleday,  Page  and  Com- 
pany), 1916. 

Laufer,  B. — Arabic  and  Chinese  Trade  in  Walrus  and  Narwhal 
Ivory.  T'oung  Pao,  1913,  pp.  315-364,  with  Addenda  by 
P.  Pelliot,  pp.  365-370. 

Supplementary  Notes  on  Walrus  and  Narwhal  Ivory. 
T'oung  Pao,  1916,  pp.  348-389. 

Sino-Iranica,  pp.  565-568  (with  special  reference  to 
Persia). 

Lull,  R.  S. — The  Evolution  of  the  Elephant.  Yale  University, 
Peabody  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Guide  No.  2,  re- 
printed from  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  Vol.  XXV, 
1908. 

Lydekker,  R. — Mammoth  Ivory.  Annual  Report  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution  for  1899  (Washington,  1901),  pp.  361- 
366. 

Mayers,  F.  W. — The  Mammoth  in  Chinese  Records.  China  Re- 
view, Vol.  VI,  1878,  pp.  273-276. 

Ranking,  J. — Historical  Researches  on  the  Wars  and  Sports 
of  the  Mongols  and  Romans:  in  which  Elephants  and  Wild 
Beasts  were  Employed  or  Slain.  And  the  Remarkable 
Local  Agreement  with  the  Remains  of  Such  Animals  Found 
in  Europe  and  Siberia.     London,  1826. 

Watt,  G.— Indian  Art  at  Delhi,  p.  173.    Calcutta,  1903. 

The  Commercial  Products  of  India,  pp.  695-699.    Lon- 
don, 1908. 


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LEAFLET  21. 


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ARCHAIC  IVORY  CARVINGS  (p.  g).     CHOU  PERIOD  (1122-247  P>.C  ). 

About  two-thirds  actual  size. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  1923 


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LEAFLET  21. 


IVORY  STATUETTES  OF  THE  GODDESS  KWAN-YIN  AND  TUNG-FANG   SO    (p.  69). 

MING  PERIOD  (1368-1643). 

About  one-half  actual  size. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  1923. 


WEWftQFULiii 


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LEAFLET  21. 


IVORY  STATUETTE  OF  A  BUDDHIST  MONK  (p.  70).    K'ANG-HI  PERIOD  (1662-1722). 

About  one-half  actual  size. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  1923. 


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LEAFLET  21. 


IVORY  STATUETTES  OF  BUDDHIST  SAINTS  (p.  70).     K'lEN-LUNG  PERIOD  (1736-95). 

About  one-half  actual  size. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  1923. 


anasnYtfii**1*^ 


LEAFLET  21. 


IVORY  STATUETTES  OF  BUDDHIST  SAINTS  (p.  71).     K'lEN-LUNG  PERIOD  (1736-95). 

About  one-half  actual  size. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  1923- 


IVORY  BRUSH-HOLDER  WITH  DESIGNS  IN  HIGH  RELIEF  (p.  72). 
K'lEN-LUNG  PERIOD  (1736-95)- 
Five  inches  high. 
Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China.  1923. 


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IVORY  BRUSH-HOLDER  CARVED  WITH  PICTURES  IN  RELIEF  (p.  72). 

K'lEN-LUNG  PERIOD  (1736-95). 

Five  and  three-fourths  inches  high. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  1923. 


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LEAFLET  21. 


PLATE  VIII. 


¥ 


PALACE  FAN  PLAITED  FROM  IVORY  THREADS  AND  DECORATED  WITH  FLOWERS  CARVED 

FROM  IVORY  AND  COLORED  (p.  68).      K'lEN-LUNG  PERIOD  (1736-95). 

Ten  inches  high. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  1923. 


00m 


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LEAFLET  21. 


jmk 


**!£&? 


1.    DISH  OF  WALRUS  IVORY.      2,    SCENT  BOX,  K 'IEN-LUNG  PERIOD.      3.    DESK  ORNAMENT 

OF  MAMMOTH  IVORY.     4,  COVERS  OF  WALRUS  IVORY  FOR  CRICKET  GOURDS. 

6,    GIRDLE  PENDANT,  K'lEN-LUNG  PERIOD  (pp.  6;,  74). 

About  one-half  actual  size. 

Capt.  .Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China,  iyjj. 


fflinTOrnroFiLLiwiuiwunr 


LEAFLET  21. 


1.  2.  4,  6,  7,    IVORY  COVERS  FOR  CRICKET-GOURDS. 

3,  5,   IVORY  GIRDLE  PENDANTS  (pp.  74.  7s). 

About  two-thirds  actual  size. 

Capt.  Marshall  Field  Expedition  to  China.  1923. 


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